Today in History: The Girl Guides

On this day (March 12) in 1912 the Girl Guides were founded in the United States. You may know them better as the Girl Scouts. The Girl Guides were a direct response to young girls being prevented from joining the new Boy Scouts organization. The Boy Scouts justified their ban on girl by pointing to cultural expectations of girls in their 1909 manual: “If a girl is not allowed to run, or even hurry, to swim, ride a bike, or raise her arms above her head, how can she become a Scout?” After receiving intense negative publicity for his anti-girl stand, Boy Scouts founder, Robert Baden-Powell, asked his sister, Agnes, to form the Girl Guides to give young women the same opportunities that Boy Scouts gave to young men.