I'm not trying to diminish the Gold Award. I know that it requires a lot of effort and is comparable to the rank of Eagle. My point is that, and correct me if I'm wrong, I don't sense that there is the push towards rank advancement in Girl Scout programs as there is in Boy Scouts. In fact, if I'm reading it right, there doesn't seem to be a comparable ladder "rank" system for Girl Scouts. I see "Levels" that appear to be age-based, and within levels a single "Award" can be earned. I see that in order to earn "Gold" you have to also have earned "Silver", but "Bronze" appears to be optional.
This is starting to get into lots of details, but you seem legitimately interested and I have some time to kill
Here are the badge logs for each level:
http://www.girlscoutshop.com/JOURNEYS-GUIDES/GUIDES2/UPDATED-BADGE-LOGS
The levels (Daisy, Brownie, Junior, Cadette, Senior, Ambassador) are all grade based and all generally meet separately. There's not the equivalent of packs where the different levels get together or anything like that. (There are some multi level troops, but those are relatively rare and usually happen in either rural areas or areas with other unique needs - like the Girls Behind Bars programs for girls with moms in jail.)
Within each level, there are journeys and badges to be earned. Journeys are what people complain about the most - several years ago GSUSA came up with the journey concept, and theoretically it's sort of a structure of the year. Some of the journeys are really crappy. Some are great. (The new ones are a lot better than the original ones, and again of course it's up to the leader and troop how it gets implemented) Badges are more traditional "skill" type badges. A troop can do all or none of the journeys and all or none of the badges. Journeys and badges combined make the heart of the "curriculum" (for lack of a better word)
You can be a Girl Scout and literally earn no badges and no journeys if you want. (It would be a super crappy experience, and I"m not sure why you'd waste the time, but GSUSA won't kick you out and you'll keep moving up levels as you get older.)
Then there are the three big "awards" - Bronze Award for juniors, Silver award for Cadette, and Gold Award for Seniors/Ambassadors.
For each award, you need to complete a certain number of journeys, hold a certain number of leadership positions (can be within or outside of scouts), and do a service/take action project of some sort - that's the 50 and 80 hour project a PP had mentioned.
Some troops have a huge push and focus on earning the awards. Others don't.
So a girl who earns her Gold Award didn't get there because she was in a structure that "pushed" her up the rank ladder. Instead, she got there because she (with troop support, presumably, although sadly not always) took the initiative to complete all the requirements, complete a huge amount of the GS curriculum, and do the project.
I have a good friend who is a Pack leader and also the Girl Scout Service Unit manager. She is an uber-Scout for sure. (I haven't gotten the chance to talk to her about the BSA change yet - I'm really interested to hear what she said!) Her take is that the two awards are very comparable in what's actually required, but that a Gold Award is typically much harder to achieve because it takes a lot more individual initiative. There's not the rank progression/expectation of earning a Gold Award that there is of earning a Eagle Scout.
All of which to say, if you're comparing a random Ambassador Girl Scout to an Eagle Scout, you're right to give more credit to the Eagle Scout, since Eagle is an actual accomplishment, while Ambassador just means she's still in Scouts. But if you know a Gold Award winner, you can be sure she's accomplished an enormous amount within the GS curriculum and has demonstrated a ton of initiative and independence.