Editorial policy

Principles

• Independence. We are not Girlguiding or WAGGGS, and we say so on every page.
• Girls’ agency. We centre what girls themselves did, without turning every decision by the organisation into a story of simple progress.
• Prescription and experience. We keep what the organisation said should happen apart from what members say did happen.
• Language. We use period language only in quotation or historical context, and explain terms now regarded as offensive.
• Four nations. We treat the UK as four countries and many regions, not as another name for England.
• Not a British export. Guiding outside Britain was shaped by local founders, adaptation, resistance and post-colonial change. We do not present other countries as passive recipients.
• Precision. We prefer exact dates and source notes, and mark uncertainty rather than filling gaps with lore.
• Saying when we are unsure. Where there is doubt about a fact, the text says so in plain words: who says it, what the doubt is, and what would settle it. A label alone is never enough, and we would rather state a doubt than leave a possibly wrong statement standing.
• Corrections. We invite corrections and keep a public log of changes.

Evidence labels

Every factual claim is either cited or covered by a nearby source note. Where it helps, we label claims:

Evidence status: Verified

Supported by a reliable source cited on the page.

Evidence status: Unconfirmed

Plausible or widely repeated, but not yet confirmed from a primary or scholarly source. The text next to it explains the doubt.

Evidence status: Disputed

Sources disagree; we explain how.

Evidence status: Interpretation

An argument, attributed to a named historian or presented as our analysis.

Each page also shows its review status (draft, awaiting fact-check, reviewed or archived), who wrote and reviewed it, and when it was last updated.

Contested subjects

When we write about a controversy, we aim to set out the chronology, the primary documents, the organisation’s stated reasons, the views of the members affected and the wider context, as far as we have been able to find them. Each follows the same pattern: what changed, dated evidence, stated reasons, responses at the time, what is disputed, the outcome or current position, and sources with an update date.

Neutral does not mean giving every view equal weight. It means representing the evidence and the uncertainty accurately.

Present-day policy

Pages that describe current policy show when they were last reviewed and when they are next due for review. Once that date has passed, the page says so.

Sensitive subjects

We take particular care with pages on safeguarding, abuse allegations, war, racism, disability and gender identity. We do not collect accounts of abuse; if you need to report a concern, contact the organisation involved, the police or a support service. This site cannot investigate cases.

Last updated 11 November 2026.