Wednesday, February 6, 2013

I am from California. Gender equality is a common concept there.  I knew things would be different when I moved to Texas, but I was not prepared for how truly different it is. Last night I had my eyes opened to the reality of the male/female roles here. I am a mom to three boys, and for the first time I wished this morning that I had at least one girl. (ok, that's not entirely accurate. I have always wanted a daughter.) Today, I wished that at least one of my sons was a daughter.  It was only for a moment, but that moment lasted long enough to almost knock me down.
Because I have three sons, I find myself immersed in a man's world.  We have done soccer.  dinosaurs, Legos, Star Wars, etc. Mostly, we have been participating in Scouts. We are on our sixth year of scouting.  Ian is a boy scout, Tristan is a cub scout. I have been a scout parent, a den leader, and now assistant Cubmaster  This is the second pack we have been with. The first was in California at Camp Pendleton. Great group of leaders. Really had it together there.  Now here we are in Texas, and I am finding out just how much of a man's world this is.  In our pack, currently half of our leaders are women and half are men.  I do believe that Boy Scouts should be guided mostly by men, as it is boys they serve.  However, I am a mom who has only sons.  My husband works long hours and is not able to serve as a scout leader in any way.  (Also, it's just not his thing.) A spot needed to be filled, and I filled it. So I do what I have to do for my sons.
In the past week I have been talked down to, corrected, interrupted, chastised, brushed off and very nearly patted on the head and told 'not to worry my pretty little head about such matters. Let us deal with that.'  All this by the male leadership in our pack. I work my butt off for this Pack, am placated in my efforts and then thrown under the bus. If this is the attitude out here then find someone else to fill my shoes. Find someone else to do all of the things that myself and the other Moms in this pack have done and are doing. I am not a scout leader because I love the outdoors or enjoy spending much of time in a testosterone laden environment.  I do it because I have sons, I do it for them, and if I don't who will?

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