For Girl Scouts, parents seem less interested in sending their daughters away to sleep away camp at the age where Girl Scout camping becomes a habit. The girls who are still camping as middle and high schoolers are the ones that started camping in second and third grade. Many of a council’s properties are far enough out to not be practical for day camp - and those are the ones that have been sold off, while the ones in our councils suburbs - within an hour - stay. I know a lot of parents who didn’t think that their girls were ready for a week - or even three days - away from home where they couldn’t come pick them up if they had a slight problem - until it was far too late to establish a camp habit. Its part of the helicopter/hands on parenting style that is prevalent in the middle class.
Of my seven girls who had me as a leader, my daughter was the only one who really enjoyed camp. The girls often don’t like the bugs and the dirt. I had one girl who was horse mad until she spent a week at a girl scout horse camp - where they make you shovel poop. That cured her of her of any desire to have anything to do with a horse. (My daughter, with minimal interest in horses, went swimming with the horses last year as part of her Counseler in Training experience - she also rides really well).
That not liking dirt isn’t unique to girls, my son did one week at a Y camp, enjoyed it, but never wanted to go back. Dirt, lack of air conditioning, and - probably most importantly - NO XBOX - made him think staying home is a better plan. I thought when he got off the bus he might go back, but by the next summer, he had other ideas.
And sleep away camp - through Girl Scouts or the Y or Boy Scouts - is still sort of expensive - it isn’t that much compared to a lot of kid activities, but families only have so much money for kid activities - and if that money is going to dance or football or hockey, it isn’t there for camp. Girl Scout camp, because of that cookie money, can be fairly cheap (I sent my daughter off for three weeks last year for $400, but she was also a junior counselor, so she was “working” and I was paying for the privilege). (With Boy Scouts the boys get much of their money from fundraising in individual accounts which pays for camp…with Girl Scouts, council gets the majority of money from cookies - the primary but not only fundraising activity - which means you can send girls to camp for $400 for three weeks - but the girls who don’t go to camp don’t get the benefit).
Because camping is a central activity for BSA and a optional activity for GSA, BSA is more likely to have family camps and troop camps which ease you into camping - eventually you like camping, not hanging out with your mom/dad/friends in the woods. My girls never wanted to spend their hard earned cookie money camping (we did two weekends because I pushed it - and subsidized it out of my pocket and not cookie money), so a lot of girls don’t have the support of people they know when they show up to camp. My girls spent their cookie money on garden supplies for a memory loss home - we planted flowers, bought mulch - they never did Build A Bear instead of camping - it was a very responsible choice, just not one that took them camping. . (They did spend cookie money bowling - and managed to save enough that we went to Savannah Georgia to see the Juliet Gordon Low house when they were headed to high school and I was going to loose them. The rest of the cookie money went to the American Cancer Society).
The range of camps available has also expanded, and many of them offer “more” to type A parents then the outdoorsy traditional Scout/Y camp. Robotics camp, law camp, theatre camp, hockey camp, soccer camp, band camp…those are the things that are going to develop the skills your kid needs to land a scholarship - Eagle Scout or Gold Award is nice - but that can be done without a week at camp. Learning to pitch from a college coach in middle school is seen as more valuable. And there is always Bible camp for those so inclined.