American Heritage Girls: Combatting Culture’s Attacks on Girls

It’s not an easy time to parent girls.

Don’t get me wrong — legally, it’s never been better to be woman. Unlike almost every generation of women before them , your daughters will get to vote, own property, choose a career, make and control their own money, and socialize with people they want.

But America’s cultural perceptions of femininity and womanhood haven’t grown apace with its legal freedoms. Your girls are growing up in a world that tells them women must be “feminine”, popular, and above all, pretty.

If they fail to meet any of these criteria, our culture tells them they might be boys.

Fortunately, parents don’t have to abandon girls to these lies. American Heritage Girls (AHG), a God-centered alternative to the Girl Scouts, is one of the many organizations dedicated to giving girls the foundation they need to become healthy, resilient women.

Patti Garibay founded AHG in 1995 after the Girl Scout’s excluded God from their oath, which had been written almost a century earlier.

“I knew that a character development program has to be based on something,” Garibay told Focus on the Family in 2022. “What’s going to be the moral barometer? What would provide [the definition] of right and wrong? When you remove God, you remove all of that.”

Garibay describes AHG as a “Christ-centered, Scout type program that is saturated in a biblical worldview.” Girls five through 18 years old can join AHG to develop their faith, leadership skills, social-emotional health, life skills and experience with the outdoors.

“A girl who completes the AHG Program will be a Christ-following servant leader who is honoring, relational, anchored in Christ, and competent: a woman of integrity,” the program promises.

Accordingly, Garibay isn’t interested in upholding cultural norms.

“These labels of what a girl should be or should look like—that mold needs to be broken,” she told Focus. “Because not every girl loves frills, and lace, and to go shopping and eat cupcakes.”

AHG encourages girls to pursue their God-given passions without questioning their biological sex.

“It’s crazy to think, ‘Oh, because I like horses and I like to climb, I must be a tomboy, which means I must be a boy, which means I’m not a girl,’” Garibay summarizes the narrative gender ideology peddles to girls, concluding, “It’s totally illogical.”

Garibay couldn’t have imagined the cultural obstacles, like gender ideology, her ministry would face in the coming decades. But through it all, she says, AHG has risen to the challenge, providing girls and families with resources to help them cling to truth.

Most recently, AHG launched a Raising Godly Girls, a “Christian parenting resource platform” that offers guidance for growing girls in a culture that wants them to stray. Raising Godly Girls’ material covers a variety of topics including body image, discipleship, female empowerment, decision-making, identity and sexuality.

The platform also includes a companion podcast, hosted by Garibay, that comes out every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Today, AHG boasts 50,000 members in all 50 states and 15 countries — a testament to the valuable service they offer girls and their families.

So, parents, don’t despair for your daughters. Organizations like AHG offer safe places for girls to develop into strong women of God — without the accompanying cultural garbage.

To find AHG troops in your area, check out this map. If AHG isn’t in your area, and you still want to participate, click here and here for more information.

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