SIGNIFICANT ATTITUDE DIFFERENCES
2:34 AM
Q - My country has had girls in Scouts for some time and in some sections they form a majority. In my Troop boys dominate in numbers and in positions although we are about to have our first female APLs for some years.
Until 12 months ago the Troop had been all male for a couple of years. PLs do choose their APLs and are expected to do so on merit and ability to get along with their APL. There are significant attitude differences. Females decide on participation in an activity after they have checked which are their friends are interested, the males decide to participate then see who is going.
Do you have any ideas why this might be? There also seems an issue of critical mass. Once girls comprise around 40% or more the dynamics of the group change and there is more interest in traditional female type things. Again I would be interested in knowing why?
In January 2001 we had our national jamboree. I led a Troop of 36 Scouts, 29 boys and 7 girls. PLs and APLs selected on merits and some patrols were of mixed gender. Each patrol had its own tent with boys and girls sharing the same tent (six in a 14ft x 14 ft tent). The tents had provision for a privacy divider with each patrol making the decision about how it was used. This worked well and each Scout knew that they were being trusted to behave in accordance with their law and promise. There were no breaches of this trust and girls accepted the leaders insistence on being escorted to/from their destination by our male Scouts going out at night.
This seemed to work well for us and parents were aware of our intentions. Do you have any views on the issue?
A - Thank you for sharing your interesting experiences with me. Many national Scout associations have been open to both boys and girls for years. However, the Scout Movement, in general, is just starting to reflect on the respective needs of girls and boys and on the ways to develop our programmes in order to meet these respective needs better.
The World Scout Conference has approved a general policy on "Girls and Boys, Women and Men in Scouting", which you can download. In Scouting, every person should find equal opportunities for his/her personal development whatever her/his gender. Every boy or girl should be supported in order to develop her/his full potential without being limited to the traditional male and female roles in society.
Therefore, it is excellent that, in your troop, boys and girls have an equal opportunity to become patrol leaders. In many societies people are still suffering from gender prejudices which tend to keep girls and women in lower positions or provide them with fewer opportunities for personal development. Refusing full participation to 50% of the population is very detrimental to the development of the society and prevents the development of real democracy.
By offering boys and girls the opportunity to work and live together on an equal footing, Scouting contributes to challenging these prejudices and to changing the mentality of future men and women. According to human rights, both boys and girls should be equally respected in their dignity as a human being. For example, their intimacy should be respected and I agree fully with the arrangements you have taken for camping.
Even in the most developed societies, gender prejudices persist. In general, it is more difficult for a woman to accede to leadership responsibilities than for a man. For example, in Scouting, both at national or world levels, the proportion of women on decision-making bodies is still low: there are 2 women and 10 men among the elected members of the World Scout Committee. This is the main reason why many women want to keep a "Guide" organisation (different from the "Scout" organisation) at national and world levels.
We still have many efforts to do to change this situation. However, the desire to provide both girls and boys with equal opportunities should not make us forget that boys and girls have different needs. To be short, l would say that informal education provided to many girls, from an early age, makes them more effective than boys in social relations: they are better able to negotiate with others and reach an agreement. Boys are more encouraged to develop their assertiveness and ability to compete. Therefore, if we want Scouting to help boys and girls develop their full potential we should encourage girls to develop their assertiveness and ability to compete and help boys to be more effective in negotiation and relationships. Our programmes should be adapted in order to respond to the respective needs of boys and girls.
This is the reason why a research project is presently being undertaken in the European Scout Region and the Eurasia Scout Region, in co-operation with the University of Oslo, with the following objectives:
I: Gain knowledge about the implicit and explicit understanding of gender roles which underlies youth programme implementation Ü in situations where there is co-education and the understanding of gender equality may be based on ignoring or denying the significance of gender.
II: Find methods to change this to a more conscious practice of gender equality, which includes: 1) Ensuring that each individual is given opportunities to develop his or her personal identity and full potential despite gender role conventions; 2) Assisting each individual to free him or herself from gender stereotypes both in his or her self-conception and in the conception of others, and teaching individuals to co-operate on the basis of respect and equity.
Until 12 months ago the Troop had been all male for a couple of years. PLs do choose their APLs and are expected to do so on merit and ability to get along with their APL. There are significant attitude differences. Females decide on participation in an activity after they have checked which are their friends are interested, the males decide to participate then see who is going.
Do you have any ideas why this might be? There also seems an issue of critical mass. Once girls comprise around 40% or more the dynamics of the group change and there is more interest in traditional female type things. Again I would be interested in knowing why?
In January 2001 we had our national jamboree. I led a Troop of 36 Scouts, 29 boys and 7 girls. PLs and APLs selected on merits and some patrols were of mixed gender. Each patrol had its own tent with boys and girls sharing the same tent (six in a 14ft x 14 ft tent). The tents had provision for a privacy divider with each patrol making the decision about how it was used. This worked well and each Scout knew that they were being trusted to behave in accordance with their law and promise. There were no breaches of this trust and girls accepted the leaders insistence on being escorted to/from their destination by our male Scouts going out at night.
This seemed to work well for us and parents were aware of our intentions. Do you have any views on the issue?
A - Thank you for sharing your interesting experiences with me. Many national Scout associations have been open to both boys and girls for years. However, the Scout Movement, in general, is just starting to reflect on the respective needs of girls and boys and on the ways to develop our programmes in order to meet these respective needs better.
The World Scout Conference has approved a general policy on "Girls and Boys, Women and Men in Scouting", which you can download. In Scouting, every person should find equal opportunities for his/her personal development whatever her/his gender. Every boy or girl should be supported in order to develop her/his full potential without being limited to the traditional male and female roles in society.
Therefore, it is excellent that, in your troop, boys and girls have an equal opportunity to become patrol leaders. In many societies people are still suffering from gender prejudices which tend to keep girls and women in lower positions or provide them with fewer opportunities for personal development. Refusing full participation to 50% of the population is very detrimental to the development of the society and prevents the development of real democracy.
By offering boys and girls the opportunity to work and live together on an equal footing, Scouting contributes to challenging these prejudices and to changing the mentality of future men and women. According to human rights, both boys and girls should be equally respected in their dignity as a human being. For example, their intimacy should be respected and I agree fully with the arrangements you have taken for camping.
Even in the most developed societies, gender prejudices persist. In general, it is more difficult for a woman to accede to leadership responsibilities than for a man. For example, in Scouting, both at national or world levels, the proportion of women on decision-making bodies is still low: there are 2 women and 10 men among the elected members of the World Scout Committee. This is the main reason why many women want to keep a "Guide" organisation (different from the "Scout" organisation) at national and world levels.
We still have many efforts to do to change this situation. However, the desire to provide both girls and boys with equal opportunities should not make us forget that boys and girls have different needs. To be short, l would say that informal education provided to many girls, from an early age, makes them more effective than boys in social relations: they are better able to negotiate with others and reach an agreement. Boys are more encouraged to develop their assertiveness and ability to compete. Therefore, if we want Scouting to help boys and girls develop their full potential we should encourage girls to develop their assertiveness and ability to compete and help boys to be more effective in negotiation and relationships. Our programmes should be adapted in order to respond to the respective needs of boys and girls.
This is the reason why a research project is presently being undertaken in the European Scout Region and the Eurasia Scout Region, in co-operation with the University of Oslo, with the following objectives:
I: Gain knowledge about the implicit and explicit understanding of gender roles which underlies youth programme implementation Ü in situations where there is co-education and the understanding of gender equality may be based on ignoring or denying the significance of gender.
II: Find methods to change this to a more conscious practice of gender equality, which includes: 1) Ensuring that each individual is given opportunities to develop his or her personal identity and full potential despite gender role conventions; 2) Assisting each individual to free him or herself from gender stereotypes both in his or her self-conception and in the conception of others, and teaching individuals to co-operate on the basis of respect and equity.
