Girl Guides in sexism row for banning car-washing while boy Scouts are allowed
Girl Guides are not allowed to wash cars to raise funds for their group
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Your support makes all the difference.Girl Guides in Britain are embroiled in a sexism row after young girls have been banned from washing cars to raise money in fear that they will scratch them.
Possible compensation claims in case of damages was cited as the reason for the ban, however the predominately-male Scouts are still encouraged to clean cars, which has left the Guides organisation open to criticism.
The Guides' website lists activities that the girls are not allowed to participate in such as paint-balling, laser games and water fights while Scouts – which has 400,000 members including girls – does not prohibit them.
Girl Guiding told The Independent Online: "Thousands of girls and women take part in a variety of activities in guiding safely every year, from abseiling and coasteering to zip-wiring and zorbing.
"A small number of activities – those involving shooting at human or animal-shaped targets – are not offered in guiding."
The organisation, the largest in the UK for girls with 553,633 members nationwide, added: "We are insured by different companies [from the Scouts] for this [car washing] activity and it is not something covered by our insurance."
The organisation did not mention whether their insurance policy will change in the future to accommodate activities that are allowed by the Scouts.
The Scouts insurance website Unity, which is not used by the Girl Guides, states: "[Car washing] can be a lucrative fund raising method, with the added advantage that you can include the Scouts in the activity. Children and water tend to go down well together!
"The Scout Association’s Legal Liability Policy does cover car washes."
Unity Insurance states that "irate drivers" have lodged claims against the organisation in the past but then lists ways of minimising risks by stating that Scouts must take precautions such as not wearing clothes with metal hardware and not using tools with grit on them.
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