For those unaware, the Boy Scouts of America changed their policy a couple of years ago to allow girls into more parts of their program, since they realized a lot of boys had their sisters tag along, in part because the Girl Scouts program has little emphasis in hiking and camping.
Even with the new policy, at the troop level (~30 kids), which is where most BSA activity is focused, they will still be gender-segregated: there will be boy troops and girl troops. They will interact at district and council levels, but that's it. Cub Scouts (for younger kids age 7-11) will optionally have mixed units.
There's still plenty of "male space" in the BSA. And learning how to interact respectfully with other genders at that age is a good thing.
This is a good summary of the official policy. But, it has not been my experience in practice. In my district there are 2 girl troops and neither is following the official policy. They meet in the same place at the same time as their corresponding boy troop. They do all troop activities together as well.
The official policy is not enforced because no one wants to be called a sexist. But it does have an effect on the boys. They behave differently around girls. And what was once their only male space is now gone.
So my experience is totally anecdotal. And maybe everyone else is following the program. But it is really heartbreaking to see in person.
Having taken my son to cub scouts lately, what happened when a girl enters what is normally a boy only space is pretty telling. The boys act different when a girl is around, and the girl plays social games with the boys that make it clear one boy was lessor and should be ostracized. (like she made it clear 1 or 2 kids were cool enough to be around her and everyone else wasn't) And addressing this behavior by the girls was never addressed because they didnt want to be perceived as being against girls in scouts. When the boys decided to ocstracize one of the others, it was addressed, but it was from my observation never followed with the girl scouts.
Further it lessened the amount of resources the boys got. Girls have to get their own den leader. So packs that had no girls had double the amount of adults attending to their needs, while others had an adult running activities for a single girl scout.
The idea that trying to teach young boys stuff like brotherhood is disrupted by adding a girl in the mix shouldn't be controversial, but here we are.
Even with the new policy, at the troop level (~30 kids), which is where most BSA activity is focused, they will still be gender-segregated: there will be boy troops and girl troops. They will interact at district and council levels, but that's it. Cub Scouts (for younger kids age 7-11) will optionally have mixed units.
There's still plenty of "male space" in the BSA. And learning how to interact respectfully with other genders at that age is a good thing.