View source for Girl Guide and Girl Scout

{{Short description|Guiding organisation membership between the ages of 10 and 14}}
{{About||Scouts, including Girl Scouts, generally|Scout Movement}} {{About||Girl Guide organizations generally, not members of the section|Girl Guides}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Dispute about|the suggestion that Girl Scouts are Girl Guides and the two are synonymous|date=June 2025}}

[[Image:Christliche Pfadfinder.jpg|thumb|300px|Singing Girl Guides at the German Evangelical Church Congress 2007 in [[Cologne]], Germany]]

A '''Girl Guide'''  or '''Girl Scout'''{{Disputed inline|Disputed|date=June 2025}}{{CN||date=June 2025}} is a member of a section of some [[Girl Guides|Guiding]] organisations{{CN||date=June 2025}} who is between the ages of 10 and 14. Age limits are different in each organisation. Girl Scouts and Girl Scout organizations already existed in Britain and other [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] countries when Robert Baden-Powell founded [[Girlguiding|The Girl Guides Association]] in 1910. There are many Girl Scouts organizations, e.g. the [[British Boy Scouts and British Girl Scouts Association|British Girl Scouts]] and [[Girl Scouts of the USA]]. The two terms are used synonymously within this article.{{Why?|date=June 2025}}{{Explain|date=June 2025}}

Girl Guides are organised into [[troop|units/troops]] averaging 15–30 girls under guidance of a team of [[Scout leader|leaders]]. Units subdivide into [[patrol]]s of about six Guides and engage in outdoor and special interest activities. Units may affiliate with national and international organisations. Some units, 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.

==Foundation==
{{Main|Girl Guides}}
Following the origin of the Boy Scouts in 1907, many girls became Girl Scouts. A group of Girl Scouts were prominent at the [[1909 Crystal Palace Scout Rally|Crystal Palace Rally in 1909]].<ref name="War Years">{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070418053447/http://pinetreeweb.com/bp-olave-10.htm |first=Olave |last=Baden-Powell |editor=Mary Drewery |author-link=Olave Baden-Powell |title=Window on My Heart. Chapter X. The War Years. |date=25 April 2004 |url=http://pinetreeweb.com/bp-olave-10.htm  |archive-date=18 April 2007 |access-date=21 June 2018}}</ref> The [[British Boy Scouts and British Girl Scouts Association|British Boy Scouts]] expanded to include Girls Scouts in 1910. After Robert Baden-Powell formed [[The Scout Association|The Boy Scouts Association]] in 1910, he formed [[Girlguiding|The Girl Guides Association]] and asked his sister Agnes to look after the Girl Guides organisation.

A few years later Baden-Powell's new wife [[Olave St. Claire Baden-Powell]] became involved in the Girl Guides Association and, in 1918, she was appointed as its Chief Guide.{{Relevance?|date=June 2025}}<ref name="War Years"/>

==Activities==
{{Main|Scout method}}
Most activities are now similar to those of Scouts but when the Girl Guides started two central themes were present: domestic skills and "a kind of practical feminism which embodies [[physical fitness]], [[survival skills]], [[camping]], [[citizenship]] training, and [[career]] preparation".<ref>{{cite journal| last = Aickin Rothschild | first = Mary | title = To Scout or to Guide? The Girl Scout-Boy Scout Controversy, 1912–1941 | journal = Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies | volume = 6 | issue = 3 | pages = 115–121 | publisher =University of Nebraska Press | date =Autumn 1981  | doi = 10.2307/3346224| issn = 0160-9009| jstor = 3346224}}</ref>
[[Image:Uprising girlguides.jpg|thumb|right|[[Polish Scouting and Guiding Association|Polish Girl Guides]] by the monument to ''[[Mały Powstaniec|the Little Insurrectionist]]'' in [[Warsaw]]]]

==Unit affiliation==

===Troop===
{{Main|Scout troop}}
Local groups, called variously units, companies or troops, are the fundamental unit of the Girl Guides. These are run by an adult, normally a woman who is between 18 and 65 years of age. She has responsibility for the girls in her group and plans out activities for the girls as well as leading the meetings. These leaders are supported by assistants. Meetings are held anywhere from weekly to monthly depending on the commitments of the participants and the activities in progress.<ref name="Units">{{Cite web|url=http://www.girlguiding.org.uk/xq/asp/sID.146/qx/whoweare/article.asp |title=Who We Are |publisher=Girlguiding UK |access-date=5 January 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070507004512/http://www.girlguiding.org.uk/xq/asp/sID.146/qx/whoweare/article.asp |archive-date=7 May 2007 |url-status=dead  }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Scouting}}
*[[World Thinking Day]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Scouting|sections}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Girl Guiding And Girl Scouting}}
[[Category:Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting| ]]