*A Note: While I love talking about fashion, beauty and all things lifestyle, I created You Must Love Life as a space for the multidimensional woman. This means that among those types of posts, I also post about current issues, politics and feminism. We as women aren’t one dimensional, so why should what we read and talk about be?*

On Wednesday, the Boy Scouts of America announced that it will be changing the name of its program for kids 10 to 17 to Scouts BSA in February 2019. The change, which drops the word ‘Boy’ from the name, comes on the heels of the decision last October allow girls into the Cub Scouts program. Scouts BSA will also begin admitting female and transgender members next year.

Upon the announcement, The Girl Scouts of America has shot back at BSA. “Since our inception, Girl Scouts of the USA have been about putting girls front and center, ensuring that everything we do is not only with their best interests in mind but equips them to be the fearless leaders and change makers who our 50 million alumnae prove to be,” a Girl Scouts spokesperson told the Washington Post.

Despite the tit for tat over a name change, some even calling it a passive aggressive change that doesn’t fully remove the ‘Boy’ from ‘Boy Scouts’ since it keeps the ‘B’, this whole storm of arguments that has lit up Twitter and online conversations over the past forty eight hours has me thinking–What if the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts combined forces?

Below are some of my thoughts on this.

More Alike Than Not

First of all, the the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts programming is actually not as different as most people think. Today, they’re a far cry from the girls just baking cookies and the boys just going camping. Both organizations have badges for camping, car maintenance, first aid, fitness, budgeting and robotics skills. Both also focus on STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Math), and incorporate it into their programs, albeit in different formats.

Separate But Equal?

While I’m all for creating spaces by women and for women that don’t hinder their ability to grow and also allow them to support each other and move forward without the hindrance of systemic sexism, the truth is that we don’t live in a world where women and men are separated. We need to teach the next generation to be able to work together respectfully in order to uplift each other and create a better world.

This is not to say that the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts need to be combined in all aspects. I think there is a benefit to each working separately in order to cater to the needs of each and teach valuable lessons, but what if in certain projects, initiatives or badges, the two came together? I can nearly guarantee they would teach each other things they wouldn’t be able to learn as separate factions.

Fighting for Enrollment Hurts Enrollment on Both Sides

Regional leader Fiona Cummings of Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois told NBC News that she believes the BSA’s decision to admit girls has contributed to the shrinking of her council’s youth membership. She also said relations with the Boy Scouts in her region are “very chilly.”

Both the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are struggling to increase their membership numbers, and when they’re fighting for the children enrolling rather than working together collaboratively, I think they’re doing a huge disservice to themselves, plus sending a message that they believe one is better than the other. If a child doesn’t have to choose between one or the other, and doesn’t have to compromise on the activities they want to participate in, both the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts would be far more successful.

What do you think about the Boy Scouts’ name change? Do you think the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts should somehow combine forces?