Childism

Childism in its original sense is the equivalent of racism. It can also refer to advocating for empowering children as a subjugated group, to discrimination against children or, less frequently, to childlike or childish qualities. It can operate as a positive term for a movement, akin to feminism, or as a critical term for prejudice and discrimination against children, akin to racism. It may be connected with critical theories like feminism, decolonialism and environmentalism, ageism, adultism and patriarchy.

The term "childism" was invented by Chester M. Pierce and Gail B. Allen in 1975 to equate the routinely negative and destructive treatment of children ("microaggressions") with everyday acts of racism and, further, to identify childism as the root cause of all other forms of discrimination including racism and sexism. Elizabeth Young-Bruehl's "Childism" (2012) affirmed the Pierce-Allen construct. In 2019, John Wall, founder of the Rutgers-based Childism Institute, redefined childism as a field of critical studies ("like feminism but for children") and distinguished it from Childhood Studies by its focus on activism. Childism in its original sense of discrimination continues to provide a theoretical lens for scholars of childhood working in the areas of law, human rights, climate change, sociology, psychology, social work, history and literature.