Families and children: Together, apart

In discussing the construction of gender in family settings and in children's lives, one must consider the relations of these separate but closely connected arenas. Easy assumptions of unity are wrong and inappropriate but studying children in isolation from family life-orvice versa-produces a flawed picture as well. This discussion suggests that literal joinings and separations in time and space should be integral to analyses in both fields because they are integral to the phenomena researchers want to illuminate.