8 Oct 2014

Would I have been expelled if I’d joined the Guides in 2014?

It wasn’t my fault. In fact, I blame Cathy P.  It was her, not me, who stopped to chat to the handsome young man with dark hair revving up his motor-cycle at the roadside.

True, I was there too, shifting from foot to foot and giggling in my blue uniform with the red neckerchief stuffed into my woggle. (Or was it a toggle?) History does not recall what they talked about – honest, it wasn’t me, it was her – but Miss Roundhill, the Guide Leader, did not regard the distraction of the man on the motorbike as an adequate excuse for our lateness.

Reader, I was expelled from the Girl Guides.

08_guides_wGirl guides wearing uniforms new and old

Looking back now, with the wisdom and sobriety of age, I suspect she was desperate to be rid of us.

It had been bad from the beginning when I didn’t want to swear allegiance to God (“Please miss, I’m an atheist”) or the Queen (“Please miss, I’m a republican.”) I was, in short, an irritating pain-in-the-arse who shouldn’t have been allowed to join in the first place.

Cathy P was equally unsuited to the discipline of Blue Tit Patrol and we spent most of our time giggling in the corner and refusing to make corn dollies or learn the correct way to lay a table.

In those days, we were supposed to get a badge as a “hostess”, making and serving a cup of tea (I failed). There were sporting activities and camping, but it seemed to me that the scouts had far more fun.

I am happy to hear how much has changed. If the Girl Guides had been the youthful feminist activists they are today I might have been more enthusiastic.

  Read more: I promise to do my best.. to overturn the patriarchy

Miss Roundhill was not promoting gender equality and women’s rights.

Or maybe, in her own way, she was but Cathy and I were too young and silly to see it.

Miss Roundhill was the headmistress of a girls’ school, someone who believed in girls’ education, who did what she could within the confines of the era to encourage girls to be positive and active.

Some years back I received an email from a chap who wanted to interview me about how, as a “woman in public life”, membership of the Girl Guides had enhanced my leadership skills. I had to confess that I was probably not the best example.

“It was all because of Cathy P and the man on the motorbike,” I explained. “But maybe the less said about that the better.”

“Thank you for your honesty,” he replied. “But perhaps we should leave it at that.”

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