Outside Mag: Lost Legend of the Girl Rangers

[RememberSchiff]

... physical evidence to prove that we—a rogue, high-adventure Boy Scouts of America Explorer troop of teenage girls in the 1970s—existed. As a group, we hiked the Appalachian Trail, paddled more than 1,000 miles of rivers in the Carolinas, and climbed some of the highest peaks in the Smokies on horseback. My quest was spurred by the October announcement from the BSA that it would begin accepting girls as Cub and Eagle scouts for the first time in its 107-year history. The media trumpeted that the gender barrier was falling, but I knew the Girl Rangers brought it down more than 48 years ago...

Interesting article with photos.

https://www.outsideonline.com/2300691/lost-legend-girl-rangers

[RememberSchiff]

... For months, the Girl Rangers operated as a kind of shadow Explorer troop, neither Boy Scouts nor Girl Scouts. Then, in April 1971, the national BSA Explorers officially went coed. The South Carolina Girl Rangers registered as an official Explorer post and became the first all-female troop in the nation. There were still caveats—they couldn’t become Eagle Scouts, which meant there were dozens of BSA merit badges they couldn’t officially earn. But it was a start. ...

[desertrat77]

" 'It affected my life in an amazing way,' says Missy Johnston Smith, now a schoolteacher in Charlotte, North Carolina. 'I wasn’t a girly girl. Rangers gave me an outlet for who I really was. We didn’t yell about how great we were—we just went out there and did it. It made me tougher and more determined, which are not bad traits to have.'"

[Chadamus]

@RememberSchiff thank you for sharing the link.

[Rick_in_CA]

Great story. Thanks for sharing!

[Jameson76]

Correct it is not a new concept.  I was advisor for a coed Explorer post in the early 80's.  We were chartered as High Adventure.  It was what would now be Ventures I suppose.  This was before YPT etc, but we did need a female over 21 for outings if the girls wanted to attend.  That was an ongoing challenge.  This was before I got married (actually getting married was not a help to my camping efforts) and I burned through some girlfriends when I asked them to go camping with us.

[RememberSchiff]

This year is the 50th anniversary of the Girl Rangers! Article below follows Outside article by former Ranger Betsy Teter.

“We always knew we were doing something groundbreaking," Teter said. “I wish this sort of outdoor experience existed for everyone. It was formative.”

Dunlap and the other former Girl Rangers agreed.

“At the time, I knew, you couldn’t be a girl in the 70s, in a Boy Scout uniform, and not think I am doing something different,” Dunlap said.

“We did everything in terms of outdoor adventures that the boys did. It felt like a nice leveling of the playing field. I did not miss having to sell Girl Scout cookies and we didn’t do crafts and we didn’t get badges, it was just ‘where could we go?’ and that was exciting and liberating and equalizing.”

Spartanburg Girl Rangers broke gender barrier in 1970. What happened to them is a mystery

https://www.goupstate.com/story/lifestyle/2020/11/27/decades-before-boy-scouts-went-coed-girl-rangers-broke-gender-barrier/5960676002/

[InquisitiveScouter]

In search of Scouting?  There it is!!!  Thanks @RememberSchiff

[HICO_Eagle]

There have always been girls who have been interested in the same things as boys.  We used to call them tom-boys.  BSA's insistence on staying focused on single-sex operations was not to deny these girls outdoor experiences.  It was because there weren't enough of them to justify taking on the additional costs and logistical burdens of incorporating them into the program.  A lot of camps were built with little to no privacy in hygienic facilities.  I remember the back-to-back latrines at Black Mountain Camp down in Philmont -- being back-to-back was the only privacy you got.

The more variables you add (adult/youth, male/female, etc.) in terms of privacy/youth protection factors, the more complex the logistical planning.

I still maintain that instructing the boys, whether it was for safety briefings or must merit badges, was more effective without girls around.  This isn't the girls' fault, it's just a fact of life.  Teenage boys are easily distracted.  A lot of males, particularly in the teenage and 20-something years, are focused on one of two things and you know which of the two it is if they just ate.

I remember hiking through a Girl Scout camp on our way uphill to the Boy Scout camp.  We took them up on their offer of a tour of the camp.  They showed us the standard tent and then the one they called "roughing it".  We laughed a little since it had cots with mattresses and pillows and even electric outlets and lighting!  As I recall, one of the girls also laughed and said she would prefer camping like we did but that's what the GSA offered.  Later, as an adult Scouter, I dug into this more with some moms who volunteered in both programs and was told that GSA didn't really allow the youth-led program like BSA did so while modern girls were more into the outdoors, the troops offered the same handicrafts and other programs the mothers had grown up with and wouldn't consider incorporating the outdoor programs.  Water under the bridge but I felt this was a wasted opportunity for a number of reasons -- seems like the Girl Rangers are another example of a wasted opportunity.