Special Post: How Girl Scouting (and Guiding) Originally Started & Why Japanese Girl Scouts Are Not Called Girl Guides (An Extra Story From the Interview of Nobuko A.)

Boy Scouts started before Girl Scouts. It was founded by Lord Baden-Powell in 1907 when he took a group of boys camping on Brownsea. A year after that Lord Baden-Powell published his book Scouting for Boys and Boy Scouts took off.

In 1909, Lord Baden-Powell held a Jamboree for Boy Scouts at the Crystal Palace in London. He was surprised to see a group of girls marching among his Boy Scouts. He asked them who they were and they said they were Girl Scouts. Baden-Powell thought that scouting was for boys so he had his sister Agnes Baden-Powell help him found Girl Guiding.

At that time, Juliette Lowe had a company of Girl Guides in Scotland. She liked the idea of Girl Guiding so much she wanted to take it back to her home country (the USA) under the name of Girl Scouting. So she talked with Lord and Lady Baden-Powell and brought the practice home to the United States.

In 1919, Girl Guiding started in Japan. However it was banned during World War II. In 1945, it was was reinstated by General MacArthur because he thought that "Democracy must lead for the youth." He encouraged ex-Girl Guide leaders to start a new movement (as Girl Scouts) and that is why Japanese Scouts are called Girl Scouts and not Girl Guides.

Nobuko's interview is here.