Has the position of children improved

• march of progress view on childhood

  • believe lower class children have less experiences
  • boys get more freedom to girls
• child liberationalists


  the need to free children from adult control

  believe childhood is not improving but getting worse
• Mause 1924

  • The history of childhood is a nightmare from which we have only recently begun to awaken
  • the further back in history the lower level of childcare and more likely of children to be killed, terrorised or sexually abused
• Aries and Shorter

  • Today's children are more valued, better cared for, protected and educated, have more rights than previous generations e.g. protected from abuse and labour, and enjoy better health
  • Better healthcare and living standards mean babies are more likely to survive, with the mortality rate now 4/1000 instead of 154/1,000 in 1900
• child centred family

  • higher living standards and smaller family sizes (down from 5.7 births to 1.83 per women)
  • children are all in the same position
  • Estimate says 1 child costs parents £227,000 by their 21st birthday
  • march of progress say that the family is child-centred as children are no longer 'seen and not heard' as in Victorian times, instead they are the family's focal point that parents invest in emotionally and financially
  • more activities with children at the focal point
• evaluation of march of progress view

  • based on a false/idealised view of children, ignoring inequality
  • ignores children's inequality in the opportunities and risks they face, and the inequalities between children/adults
• inequalities among children

  • Differences in status/experiences based on nationality (90% of low-weight births are from developing countries)
  • Gender differences (boys more likely to be allowed to play out alone, girls do more domestic chores)
  • Ethnic differences (Asian parents more strict on daughters)
  • Class differences (children of unskilled manual workers more likely to experience conduct disorders, poor families more likely to die in infancy, fail in school, be on child protection register)
• inequalities between children and adults

  • march of progress argue that adults use this power for the benefit and protection of children e.g. to stop child labour
  • firestone (1979) and holt (1974) argues that things the march of progress sees as care/protection are just a way of controlling and oppressing children, like excluding them from paid work
  • see the need to free children from adult control -> seen as 'child liberationalists'
• control over childrens space

  • shops may display signs saying 'no schoolchildren'
  • children are forbidden to play in certain areas
  • close surveillance of children in certain public areas e.g. shopping centres
  • fears about road safety and stranger danger meaning more children are being driven to school
• control over childrens time

  • adults control childrens daily routines including the times they get up, the time they go to school, the time they eat etc
  • adults control the speed their children grow up at
• control over childrens body

  • adults control childrens bodies by controlling how they sit, walk, run, what they wear, hairstyles etc
  • adults wash their childrens face, teeth hair
  • adults kiss, cuddle, pikc up their children
  • adults may restrict how children touch their own bodies e.g. told not to pick their nose or suck their thumbs
• control over childrens access to resources

  • children have limited opportunities to earn money so have to remain economically dependent on their parents
  • done through labour laws and compulsory schooling
  • child benefits go to the parents not the child
  • pocket money is dependent on behaviour and some parents restrict what it can be spent on
• age patriarchy

  • Gittens 1998 uses this term to describe inequalities between adults and children
  • argues there is also an age patriarchy of adult domination and child dependency
• evaluation of child liberationists

  • some control over children is justified as they can't always safeguard themselves and act rationally
  • children arent as powerless as liberationists assume
• the new sociology of childhood

  • doesnt see children as simply adults in the making instead sees children as active agents who create their own childhood
  • Smart (2011) says the new approach aims to include the views and experiences of children themselves while they are living through childhood