Paper short abstract:

In this paper I will problematise the use of the category of the child as a non-gendered generalisation in bureaucratic and children's rights discourses. I will discuss implications of this practise by looking into classical interdisciplinarian gender theory.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I will problematise the use of the category of the child as a non-gendered generalisation in bureaucratic and children's rights discourses. I will discuss implications of this practise by looking into classical interdisciplinarian gender theory which mostly has been preoccupied with situations in Europe and the USA. Gender socialisation has been focused taking outset in the typical middle class family of the Fifties. Weight has been laid on the gendered divison of labour behind the dichotomies of the caring housewife and the working male provider. Gender differences has been understood according to socialisation practises which reproduses such gender roles.

Feminist critique represents a deconstruction of such dichotomies, focusing on the revolution in gender relations which followed the collapse of the traditional division of labour, as women "left the home" joining the capitalist labour force on a mass scale from the Seventies. The paper will also consider the new situations in the era of globalisation and migration and discuss how gender still matters when it comes to children.