Around this time of the year, you’ve probably seen a cute girl with glasses walking with a heavy box of cookies around the school. That’s my friend Lauren, and as you probably guessed from that description, she’s a Girl Scout. Although you may have surface-level knowledge on who Girl Scouts are, they’re a lot more than just their addictive cookies.
Founded in 1912, a nearly deaf 51-year-old woman named Juliette Gordon Low envisioned a youth organization that would prepare girls for the real world. The educational program would place an emphasis on inclusiveness, the outdoors, self-reliance, and service. Low organized the first Girl Scout gathering ever, in which a modest group of 18 girls congregated and did activities not limited to: basketball, hiking, swimming, and camping.
You’re probably wondering when the cookies came in, and that was after two decades with the entrance of the Great Depression. The Girl Scouts participated in relief efforts by collecting clothing and food and working in hospitals. Former First Lady and Girl Scout Lou Henry Hoover inspired the first national sale of Girl Scout cookies as a way to support those in need. The starting price was only 23 cents per box of 44 cookies, meaning that with $3.56, you could buy three boxes of cookies today ($1 in 1930 is the equivalent of $15.49 today)!
Just three years later, the national Girl Scout organization began the process of licensing the first commercial bakers to produce cookies, launching the cookies into national stardom. By 1937, there were more than 125 Girl Scout councils holding cookie sales nationwide, and by 1951, Chocolate Mints, now known as your famous Thin Mints, were invented and became a bestseller.
Girl Scouts also contributed to the World War II effort, collecting over 1.5 million clothing items, teaching survival skills to thousands of women (including comforting children!), running Farm Aide projects, collecting fat and scrap metal, growing Victory Gardens, and operating bicycle courier services. Additionally, Japanese-American girls confined to internment camps in Utah and California, also established Girl Scout troops.
With the advent of the counterculture movement, Girl Scouts held “Speak Out” conferences around the country fighting for racial equality and elected their first African American national board president Gloria D. Scott. Also, former Girl Scout Cheryl Washer remembers that her troop leader saw their uniforms as a way to counter the traditional Southern culture. Thus, there was no skirt length enforced, and specific pieces of clothing could be added to the uniform. Washer and the other Scouts loved it. The Girl Scouts also participated in the environmental movement through their Eco-Action program and helped thousands of Vietnamese refugee children adapt to their new homes in America.
Fast forward to 2016, the Girl Scouts celebrated their 100th Anniversary selling cookies at the Academy Awards. That small congregation of girls 105 years ago has now grown into a global movement, including Scouts in 92 countries and more than 50 million alumni.
Sources:
https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2012/05/100-years-of-girl-scouts-part-i.html
https://www.girlscouts.org/en/about-girl-scouts/our-history.html
https://www.girlscouts.org/en/about-girl-scouts/our-history/timeline.html
https://www.girlscouts.org/en/cookies/all-about-cookies/Cookie-History.html
I really enjoyed reading your post and its description of the history of Girl Scouts, but I wanted to ask you how did they combat the prevalent assumption that they were simply a training organization for housewives? Also, I was curious about whether or not the organization was segregated and it was! Low feared that an official position that included black girls as scouts would make the Southern troops quit, so she left the decision up to state and local councils and this (similar to the Boy Scouts) resulting in segregated troops. Sarah Randolph Bailey fought against this creating the Girl Reserves that was eventually admitted into the national organization, along with funding the first day camp specifically for black Girl Scouts in 1945. By 1956, a national effort to desegregate all Girl Scout troops had began and they became part of the early Civil Rights movement, with Martin Luther King Jr. calling the scouts "a force for desegregation".
ReplyDeleteWow! This is so insightful, Maya! As I mentioned in my post, Low formed this organization during the Progressive era, a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States. Therefore, we can assume that she was attempting to combat the notion of a domestic circle and women simply working in the household for their whole lives. Also, the girls participated in outdoor activities such as basketball, camping, and swimming, and these aren't typical skills that housewives learn. Fast forward a century, the organization debuted 23 new STEM badges.
DeleteSource:
https://bestlifeonline.com/girl-scout-facts/