Among children

• Not all children have the same status or experiences, e.g. children of different nationalities experience different childhoods & life chances

  e.g. low birth weights.
• Gender difgerences between children

  • Hillman: boys encouraged to play outside
  • Bonke: girls domestic labour, bedroom culture.
• Brannen - Ethnic differences

  found asian parents more likely than others to be strict in daughters.

  • IZZAT (family honour) placed on girls more than boys.
• Class inequalities


  1. Poor mothers more likely to have low birth-weight babies
  2. Children of unskilled manual workers: 3x likely hyperactive & 4x likely behavioural difficulties compared to proffessional.
  3. children of poor families more likely to: die younger, suffer longstanding illness, shorter in height, fall behind at school, and be on child-protection register.
• conflict view (marx, fem)


  we can’t speak of children in general as if they’re equal, as fheir life chances are impacted by gender, ethnicity, class and nationality.