© 2025
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Fifty-One Percent
51%

Amy Farrell on "Intrepid Girls" and the history of the Girl Scouts

By Jesse King
Published October 16, 2025 at 8:00 PM EDT
The University of North Carolina Press/Dickinson College
Book Cover and Headshot

On this week's 51%, we speak with Dickinson College Professor Amy Farrell about her new book Intrepid Girls: The Complicated History of the Girls Scouts of the USA. A former Girl Scout herself, Farrell explores how the organization has both empowered girls and reinforced discrimination throughout its more than 100-year history. Intrepid Girls tells the nuanced story of how the Girl Scouts shaped the lives of more than 50 million girls while also segregating scouts of color, operating in Japanese incarceration centers, and avoiding the word "feminist." 

Guest: Amy Farrell, professor of American studies and women's, gender and sexuality studies at Dickinson College, and author of Intrepid Girls: The Complicated History of the Girls Scouts of the USA

51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio in Albany, New York. Jesse King is our producer and host. Our associate producer is Madeleine Reynolds, and our theme is "Lolita" by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. This episode also features the track "Going Home" by Mr. Smith.
 
————

Tags
51% girl scoutsIntrepid GirlsAmy Farrell
Jesse King
Jesse King is the host of WAMC's national program on women's issues, "51%," and the station's bureau chief in the Hudson Valley. She has also produced episodes of the WAMC podcast "A New York Minute In History."
See stories by Jesse King
Related Content
  • Tylenol pain-relief pills are shown in La Habra, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
    Fifty-One Percent
    Tylenol and Autism
    Jesse King
    The Trump Administration is promoting an unproven link between Tylenol and autism, urging pregnant women not to take the painkiller. On this week's 51%, we speak with Dr. Stacy De-Lin, associate medical director of Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic, about what expectant mothers should know about the drug, and why she feels it's still safe to prescribe. We also learn about what the end of funding for SNAP-Ed in the federal budget means for hunger programs across the country, and those who benefit from them.
  • Fifty-One Percent
    Dr. Jennifer Bradtke on stress and burnout
    Jesse King
    On this week’s 51%, we speak with psychologist Dr. Jennifer Bradtke about the physical and emotional impacts of stress and burnout, and how you can better implement tools to de-stress. Burnout can affect not just working women, but caregivers, moms and activists as well. Contrary to what you might think, Bradtke says the key to addressing burnout is not getting away from it all, but creating daily habits that protect your time, energy and mental wellbeing in the wake of stress. We also hear from New York State Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal about a package of bills she has introduced to establish workplace protections and better healthcare coverage for women experiencing menopause.
  • Fifty-One Percent
    Barbara Benish on "ArtMill" and creativity under censorship
    Jesse King
    On this week’s 51%, we speak with artist Barbara Benish about how she started the ArtMill Center for Regenerative Arts in the Czech Republic, and how artists continued to work under the totalitarian regime of former Czechoslovakia. Benish came to the Czech Republic from Los Angeles in 1989, just as a revolution overturned the country’s long-running Communist regime. Initially hoping to explore her roots, Benish saw how the arts survived decades of censorship through community, how creativity continued to influence and change society, and how the arts flourished after the revolution. Benish tells the story of this time and the creation of her community in her new book ArtMill: A Story of Sustainable Creativity in Bohemia.
  • FILE - Boxes of the drug mifepristone sit on a shelf at the West Alabama Women's Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala., March 16, 2022. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Sunday, April 9, 2023, stressed that women for now continue to have access to the abortion medication mifepristone after the Texas judge stayed his ruling for a week so federal authorities could file a challenge. The drug was approved by the FDA in 2000. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed, File)
    Fifty-One Percent
    25 years of mifepristone
    Jesse King
    On this week’s 51%, we recognize the 25th anniversary of the Food & Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, which, in conjunction with misoprostol, is now used for the majority of abortions in the U.S. WAMC’s Samantha Simmons speaks with abortion-rights advocate and vlogger Marissa Rudd about her experience using mifepristone, and why she personally chose to have an abortion. We also chat with Kimberly Mutcherson, a professor at Rutgers Law School, about the challenges mifepristone faces in court and in the Trump Administration.