Epistemic Justice for Children

Sor Juana's struggle for intellectual credibility in a world that dismissed women's scholarship illuminates how epistemic injustice—the denial of someone's capacity to know—violates fundamental dignity. Children face similar credibility deficits; their observations, concerns, and knowledge about their own lives are routinely dismissed or undervalued by adults. True children's rights require epistemic justice: taking children seriously as witnesses to their own experiences, valuing their input in decisions affecting them, and recognizing their emerging competencies as knowers. This means listening to children's descriptions of abuse, respecting their perspectives on family decisions, and incorporating their voices in institutional policies. Sor Juana's insistence on her own intellectual standing models how marginalized groups must claim recognition. For children, epistemic justice means creating safe spaces where their testimony is believed, their reasoning is engaged thoughtfully, and their unique knowledge—about their bodies, communities, and needs—shapes the systems designed to protect them.