| Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media News |  |  |
- Celebrating 100 years of Girl Scouting
As a proud partner of the Girl Scouts' Healthy MEdia: Commission on Positive Images of Women and Girls, we wish the Girl Scouts of the USA a happy 100th anniversary! This month, news organizations across the county, such as The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post and the Chicago Tribune, are honoring the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts of the USA.
As the Girl Scout blog notes, a century ago, Juliette Gordon Low assembled 18 girls in Savannah, Ga., for the first local Girl Scout meeting. She believed that all girls should be given the opportunity to develop physically, mentally, and spiritually. Today, Girl Scouts of the USA has a membership of over 3.2 million girls and adults in every residential U.S. zip code and in 90 countries. Nearly 60 million living women in the U.S. today are Girl Scout alumnae.
What is especially important about the Girl Scouts' rich history of supporting women's leadership is their insistence on being a voice for all girls, regardless of their background or neighborhood. Founder Juliette Gordon Low's first 18 Girl Scouts included girls from influential Savannah families, as well as girls from the Female Orphan Asylum and Congregation Mickve Israel. As early as 1917 the first African-American troops were established, as well as troops for disabled girls. One of the earliest Latina troops was formed in Houston in 1922; Girl Scout troops supported Japanese-American girls in internment camps in the 1940s, and by the 1950s, Girl Scouts was leading the charge to fully integrate all of its troops.
Girl Scouting continues to build girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place. We are proud to partner with our Girl Scout friends in building women leaders for the next 100 years
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