Daughters of War: Girl Guides and Service after the First World War

Abstract

Abstract Using the lens of the largest female youth organization in interwar Britain, the Girl Guides, I argue girls became important to the rebuilding of the post-war world as future wives, mothers, and keepers of the hearth. Yet this message of return to home was complicated by a wartime message of patriotic service, citizenship, and adventure. Thus, uniformed clubs such as the Guides tried to balance these ideals, with female war veterans leading the way. Guiding taught homemaking skills in the 1920s while also offering alternative ways for girls and young women to continue to maintain a meaningful service to the nation. Such groups became a haven both for those who had performed war work and for a new generation of girls who longed to be patriots and active public-minded women. Finally, the Guides performed an exemplary role in enacting gender roles for a postwar generation, especially given the group’s connection as a complementary ‘sister’ group to Boy Scouting, which created a symmetrical training program for boys and girls.