Girl Guide and Girl Scout: Difference between revisions

A '''Girl Guide''' is a [[girl]], usually 11 to 17 years of age, participating in the worldwide [[Scouting]] movement. This movement began in 1907, when [[Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell|Robert Baden-Powell]] held the [[Brownsea Island Scout Camp|first Scout camp]] on [[Brownsea Island]], [[South England]]. To advance his ideas, Baden-Powell wrote the book, ''[[Scouting for Boys]]'', which targeted boy readership, and described the [[Scout method]] of using outdoor activities to develop character, citizenship, and personal fitness qualities among youth. The girls movement began in 1909 at [[The Crystal Palace]] in [[London, England]], where Baden-Powell encountered a number of ''Girl Scouts'' in Scouting uniform and saw the demand for a similar programme for young women and girls.

Girl Guides are organised into [[troop]]s averaging twenty to thirty girls under guidance of a team of [[Scout leader]]s. Troops subdivide into [[patrol]]s of about six Guides and engage in outdoor and special interest activities. Troops may affiliate with national and international organisations. Some troops, especially in [[Europe]], have been [[co-education]]al since the 1970s, allowing boys and girls to work together as Scouts. There are other programme sections for older and younger girls.

[[Image:Uprising girlguides.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Poland|Polish]] Girl Guides by the Monument to Small Partisan in [[Warsaw]]]]

In September 1909, a number of girls turned up to the first Scout Rally at [[the Crystal Palace]], calling themselves Girl Scouts.<ref name="palacebp">{{cite web | last =  | first =  | authorlink = | coauthors = | year = 1997 | url = http://pinetreeweb.com/bp-pix76.htm | title = Baden-Powell and the Crystal Palace Rally | format = | work = Baden-Powell Photo Gallery | publisher = Pinetree web| accessdate = 2007-01-22}}</ref> This was a turning point for girls in Scouting: Baden-Powell accepted that girls were going to be involved in Scouting. In the October issue of ''Boy Scout Headquaters Gazette'', a monthly newspaper for scoutmasters, an instruction appeared that all applications for membership for Girl Scouts or Girl Guides should be sent directly to headquarters, as arrangements were being made for them. A month later, in the same publication, ''The Scheme for Girl Guides'' was published. Baden-Powell knew that the girls needed a separate organisation if it were to be successful and if it were not to prejudice the success of the Boy Scout movement. The Girl Guides were named after the famous corps of guides in [[India]], the [[Khyber Guides]]. Many girls in the UK who had been Girl Scouts were suspicious of these new developments but were persuaded to accept them.<ref name="Kerr">{{cite book| last =Kerr | first =Rose | authorlink= Rose Kerr | title =Story of the Girl Guides 1908-1938 | publisher =Girl Guides Association | date =1976 | location =London}}</ref>

In 1910 Baden-Powell set up the Girl Guides as a parallel [[female]] movement, run by his sister [[Agnes Baden-Powell]].<ref name="palacegs">{{cite web | last =  | first =  | authorlink = | coauthors = | year = 1997 | url = http://www.msc.edu.ph/gsp/histo1.html | title = History of the Girl Scouts Movement | format = | work = | publisher = Girl Scouts of the Philippines| accessdate = 2007-01-22}}</ref> She had to overcome a lot of prejudice against Guiding at that time. Many people thought that it would turn girls into tomboys, although as the Rev W. T. Money in [[Greenwich]], London wrote in a report of 1910:  

While Agnes played a major role until her death in 1945, Baden-Powell's wife, [[Olave Baden-Powell]], became Chief Guide of [[England]] in 1918, and World Chief Guide in 1930.  Baden-Powell wrote a separate handbook for the new organisation, ''[[How Girls Can Help to Build Up the Empire|The Handbook for the Girl Guides or How Girls Can Help to Build Up the Empire]]'' (1912).

[[Image:WAGGGS badge.png|thumb|150px|[[World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts|WAGGGS]] membership badge-the trefoil is the main element in the logo of most Guiding organizations]]