Kathie Cerveny's

kathie@eecs.nwu.edu (Kathie Cerveny)

WOMEN IN SCOUTING

I wrote the course in 1994 and presented it and a second edition in 1995.The feedback was absolutely outstanding, the facts are straight from national.  For the information of those who might want to know - following is my course outline and the facts that go with it. It is, indeed, the legal cases being brought against National in regards to female Scoutmasters, (on the East Coast) that caused National to make a policy change admitting women to Scoutmaster.

1930

The first woman was registered in the BSA in the New York Area Council as a Den Mother in March of 1930. Women did not do much else in a registered basis, but many women served as Commissioners and as field representatives, unofficially.

1972

There were no visible changes to that until 1972. In the fall of 1972, the BSA's National Executive Board announced that that would be the final year in which the Silver Fawn Award , presented to women for service to the local Council's Cub Scouting program, would be presented and that those women previously awarded the Silver Fawn would be eligible to receive and wear the Silver Beaver Award if they chose to do so.

[ In the history of the Silver Fawn, 1341 awards were presented since 1934 (the start of the award) to women whom have done much to serve youth in their communities. The Silver Fawn was ONLY awarded to females. ]

1973

In the fall of 1973, the BSA allowed females to serve as Cubmasters. This was the first time that females were given the ability to serve as "primary Scouter" for a unit. Also during 1973 and ending in around 1976, the BSA conducted several studies into the "idea" that females can serve in support roles in Troops and in local Councils and Districts other than in Cub Scouting. In those years, local Councils were permitted and several did register female members as Commissioners and allowed them to attend basic Commissioner Service Basic Training courses. However, they were not allowed to attend Boy Scout leader training courses until much later. The first Commissioners were mainly Roundtable Commissioners and Cub Scout Unit Commissioners. 1974 In 1974, Mary Wright became the first National Explorer President after being elected to this position during Exploring's third National Explorer Presidents' Congress in Washington. Through Mary's leadership, the Exploring program gained three new National Speciality Associations....Law Enforcement, Law and Government and Medical Exploring. Since 1973, two other female Explorers have served as National Explorer President. The National Explorer President serves as a voting youth member of the National Executive Board of the BSA as well as voti ng members in other key committees dealing with program and support. After testing it for two years, in 1974, the BSA hired its first female Education Executive in Orange, New Jersey. The following year, 1975, the BSA allowed local Councils to hire females to serve as Exploring Executives and as paraprofessionals dealing with in-school and Explori ng programs.

1976

In 1976, the BSA quietly dropped the position called "Den Mother" since 1929, (as many men were now coming forward to serve as leaders of Dens, and they objected to being titled Den Mothers) and all documents and references were changed to Den Leader. Local Councils were ex tremely slow to catch on to this new title for something that has traditionally been a female on e. [ As of 1992, there were just as many male Den Leaders and Assistant Den Leaders than there are female Den Leaders and Assistants. ]

1977

In 1977, the Narragansett Council (Providence, RI) registered a woman as Scoutma ster of a Troop within that Council because in that community, no man wanted to step forward and work with a longstanding unit in that local Council; the woman did. The battle became a nat ional issue and led to the decision by the BSA's National Executive Board to admit women as leaders OTHER than Scoutmasters or Assistants, as WEBELOS Den Leaders or Assistants, or as Friends and Counselors to Lone Scouts. Although the announcement was publicized and sen t to the field, very few Councils implemented the policy. This decision was reannouced in 1987, and the BSA National Executive Board removed the "female exclusion" from Scouting totally, s tarting with the fall of 1989. (After winning a Supreme Court decision in favor of the policy excludi ng females.)

1978

In 1978, the BSA allowed Sharon Coleman, formally one of the nation's first Expl oring Executives, to serve as Exploring Director and therefore breaking the "management barrier" w hich was in place for several years before. The Old Kentucky Home Council in Louisville, Kentucky , became the first Council to have a female to serve as a Field Director. [ Today, out of the 4620 professionals registered with the BSA, there are over 1 200 of them female...and most are either serving as District Executives, District Executive multiple-person, Senior District Executives, or Exploring Executives. There are 33 Field Directors whom are female serving local Councils but as of 1992, there are NOT any Program Directors, Fina nce Directors, Assistant/Associate Scout Executives, Associate Council Executives nor Council/S cout Executives whom are female. ]

WOODBADGE

In 1976, the BSA officially recognized the needs of having a separate Wood Badge training course specificially for Cub Scouter Trainers. (EC 9000) In 1977, the next C.S. Woodbadge course was held in East Central Region (EC-CS-1).  There were seventeen female Cub Scouters in attendance during the first regional Cub Scout Leader Wood Badge course which was held in the East Central Region. The second course in East Central Region (EC-CS-2) was attended by approximately 50% female. [ The Volunteer Training Division says that over 1200 Cub Scouters have been through Cub Leader Wood Badge up until 1992. ]

CAMPING

In 1980, the Cub Scout Program Division approved a new Cub Scout Day Camp program and approved a National Camping School syllabus for it's usage to train program and speciality directors. Before this time, only seven females have attended National Camping School and three of them were professionals. All of them attended the Boy Scout Camp Operations portions of the National Camping School. [ Since 1980, more than 200 females have attended National Camping School and more than 140 of them are still currently certified to teach elements of Cub Scout Day Camp program or to run Cub Day Camp programs in local Councils. Also since 1980, 118 females have attended the Boy Scout camp versions of the National Camping School and are able to teach other Scouters or Scouts elements of the camping program. It is currently not unusual to find at least two or three females on the staff of a National Camping School course. ]

ORDER OF THE ARROW

In 1988, during the National Order of the Arrow Conference, OA Chiefs decided to allow female Explorers and Exploring leaders to serve as Order of the Arrow members after a long meeting which lasted long into the night. This precursor allowed the National Executive Board of the BSA to allow females to serve as Boy Scouting leaders starting with the 1989 program year. [ The National OA folks say as of 1992 (the last figures that I can get from them) that there are over 3000 female Arrowmen of well over 39,000 active Arrowmen registered with lodges in the last year (1991). ]

BOY SCOUT LEADER BASIC TRAINING

The first females attending Boy Scout Leader Basic courses (which were later renamed Scoutmaster Fundamentals) in local Councils all over the nation began in 1976. The first female Woodbadgers were allowed to attend courses in 1976. Northeast Illinois has as one of the first female Boy Scout Woodbadgers, a lady who is a Raven, from EC-96. Females began serving on Boy Scout Woodbadge staff in 1978, and have gradually increased over the years. However, there are rarely more than one or two females on staff per course. There are also rarely more than one or two females taking this course at any given time. [ There are, according to the Volunteer Training Division, over 500 females who have completed Boy Scout Wood Badge training --wearing Boy Scout Wood Badge beads -- and another 240 or more that are currently undergoing elements (either the practical or the application phases) of the Boy Scout Wood Badge course in 92 local Councils in the USA and in Europe.] There are more than 3000 female Scouters in Boy Scout Troops as of 1992, and there are 844 female Scoutmasters registered with the BSA as of 1992. Also, please note that there is only one female Scout Executive to date, DesPlaines Valley Council, IL, Irene Szinavel