General Information about the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA)

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HOME—US Scouting—Girl Scouts of the USA

Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA)

Here are the basics about the Girl Scouts of the USA:

Girl Scouts of the USA or GSUSA (originally named the Girl Scouts of America)
Founded on March 12, 1912, in Savannah, Georgia, by Juliette Gordon "Daisy" Low
Chartered by the US Congress in 1950
Headquarters in New York City
GSUSA is the USA's only Girl Scouting/Guiding organization recognized by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (many countries have several Guiding programs).
GSUSA is divided into 109 local Councils, recently consolidated from 310 previous local Councils.
GSUSA is the largest Guiding organization in the world. Total membership (9/30/06) was 3 578 760 (2 665 332 youth and 913 428 adults). It has about 200 000 fewer youth members than the BSA.
There is no connection between GSUSA and the BSA, unlike in many countries where Boy Scouting and Girl Guiding often have a common national organization, and often coed units as well.

GSUSA has four main program sections, based on grade, although the oldest section is confusing to figure out:

Girl Scout Daisies, grades K-1, formerly called Daisy Scouts (uniform is a smock [tunic])
Girl Scout Brownies, grades 2-3, formerly called Brownies
Girl Scout Juniors, grades 4-5
"Studio 2B" (Girl Scouts), ages 11-17, also called "Girl Scout Cadettes, Seniors, and Ambassadors", where girls are encouraged to "do their own thing", and can call themselves whatever they want (according to the GSUSA website, "Now girls can choose their own group name—such as Cadette, Senior, G-Force, Adventure Divas, etc"). Uniform is optional.

Girl Scout Promise and Law

Here are GSUSA's Girl Scout Promise and Girl Scout Law. GSUSA has taken a more liberal position on belief in God than the Boy Scouts of America, as can be seen from the official explanation of 'God' in the Promise:

The Girl Scout Promise
On my honor, I will try:
To serve God* and my country,
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law.

* The word "God" can be interpreted in a number of ways, depending on one's spiritual beliefs. When reciting the Girl Scout Promise, it is okay to replace the word "God" with whatever word your spiritual beliefs dictate.

The Girl Scout Law
I will do my best to be
honest and fair,
friendly and helpful,
considerate and caring,
courageous and strong, and
responsible for what I say and do,
and to
respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place, and
be a sister to every Girl Scout.

GSUSA's Highest Award

Unlike the well-known BSA Eagle Scout award (started in 1911), GSUSA's highest award is little known outside of GSUSA. Knowledge of the award by the general public has not been helped by repeated name changes since the first award was started in 1916. And many local Girl Scout Council websites seem uncertain about exact names and dates of the early awards.

Golden Eagle of Merit
1916 to 1919
(the first Girl Scout top award)
Golden Eagle of Merit Award

Golden Eaglet
1919 to 1940
Golden Eaglet Award

Curved Bar Award
1940 to 1963

First Class Award
1963 to 1980
First Class Award (with 4 Challenge pins)

Girl Scout Gold Award®
1980 to present

For information about Boy Scouting in the US, see Boy Scouts of America (BSA).

For information on Camp Fire USA and other alternatives to Scouting, see our Scout-like Organizations page.

For names and photos of the highest rank/achievement/advancement in other countries, see our Highest Rank in Scouting page.