The New York Times, among others, reported this past week that the Boy Scouts of America in its continued effort to appeal to girls would drop “boy” from its name next February and start allowing girls into the boys-only club.

The Boy Scouts will become Scouts BSA, it says. The change is part of the organization’s new Scout Me In marketing campaign, which features girls and boys.

It announced last fall that girls aged 7 to 10 were welcome to join the Cub Scouts beginning this summer. More than 3,000 girls have enrolled so far.

Now, the century-old organization says it also will start welcoming older girls, age 11 through 18, opening a door for them to earn the organization’s highest rank of Eagle Scout.

It’s all about inclusivity, insists Michael Surbaugh, the chief executive of the Boy Scouts of America, an umbrella organization that will retain its name.

“As we enter a new era for our organization, it is important that all youth can see themselves in scouting in every way possible,” Surbaugh said in a statement.

What’s Surbaugh suggesting? That girls can achieve more as Boy Scouts than they can achieve as Girl Scouts? Or that the path and program for boys is somehow superior to the one intended for girls?

There might be some unintended truth to that. Consider the ubiquitous Pinewood Derby car races and what the Girl Scouts call their version of it: the Powder Puff Derby. It’s one example of superfluous gender distinction, one that might discourage some girls from choosing Girl Scouts over Boy Scouts.

It should be noted that the Boy Scouts are pressing for a marketing advantage by going gender-exclusive. It was strongly implied this week that the Boy Scouts hope to reverse a plunge in membership. The organization says it has about 1.25 million Cub Scouts and 800,000 Boy Scouts across the United States. At its peak in the 1970s, the organization had closer to 5 million members.

The Girl Scouts organization harshly rebuked the Boy Scouts in October when it announced the Cub Scouts would start accepting girls. “The Boy Scouts’ house is on fire,” Girl Scouts of the USA said in a statement. “Instead of addressing systemic issues of continuing sexual assault, financial mismanagement and deficient programming, BSA’s senior management wants to add an accelerant to the house fire by recruiting girls.”

This week’s response from the Girl Scouts was more carefully measured. The day after the Boy Scouts announced the new inclusivity policy, Girl Scouts USA Executive Director Sylvia Acevedo said GS-USA “will remain the first choice for girls and parents who want to provide their girls opportunities to build new skills, explore STEM and the outdoors, participate in community projects, and grow into happy, successful, civically engaged adults.”

Good for the Girl Scouts. They appear to be on the right track this time.