When Robert Baden-Powell started the Scout movement a century ago he maintained that it was strictly for boys only. Now, for the first time, more girls have joined the movement than boys and last year they outnumbered boys at 4,330 to 3,796.


Although the Girl Guide movement has issued a statement saying that it still has a waiting list of 44,000 and a membership of 524,528 girls, it has been suggested that as girls are now more likely to go to a co-educational school they also want to work with boys outside the classroom. Historically the Scouts have stood for adventure while the Girl Guide image has been represented as more practical and domestic – although admittedly this has changed with the times. The Scouts were founded in 1907 and only began to welcome girls in 1976, with girls younger than 14 only allowed to join in 1991.
Denise King, chief executive of Girlguiding, says that girls and young women in Guides are offered the ‘opportunity to make friends and have fun within a safe girl-only space’.
What do YOU think? Should the Girl Guides remain a ‘girls-only space’ or should the movement move with the times and become mixed? Let us know in the comment box below.

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