I was a girl scout (until age 15) and have been a brownie leader. From what I remember the GS have always been liberal or more specifically, progressive. They were teaching girls to be independent long before the women's movement. The switched from the traditional "homemaking" type badges to more civic and career geared badges. Of course, the were always about God and Country in their oath, but bottom line is that they wanted girls to be independent. The cookie sale was the start of benign business training. Girls were expected to not only sell the cookies door to door, but think of creative ways to sell them, like at local fairs, etc. They had to individually keep track of orders to turn into the chairman, deliver and collect payments. They could "earn" credits for things like summer scout camps via their sales.
Here is a little history:
Girl Scouting in the United States of America began on March 12, 1912 when Juliette "Daisy" Gordon Low organized the first Girl Scout troop meeting of 18 girls in Savannah, Georgia. It has since grown 3.7 million members.[4][/sup] Low, who had met Baden-Powell in London while she was living in the United Kingdom, dreamed of giving the United States and the world "something for all the girls." She envisioned an organization that would bring girls out of their sheltered home environments to serve their communities, experience the out-of-doors, and give them the opportunity to develop "self-reliance and resourcefulness." Unlike other organizations, from its inception, Girl Scouts has been organized and run exclusively by women, for girls and women.[21]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Scouts_of_the_USA
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