Epistemic Justice in Parent-Child Relationships

Sor Juana's work engaged with questions of power, knowledge, and who gets to think and speak. Applied to parenthood, this becomes epistemic justice: the practice of genuinely listening to one's child's emerging thoughts, respecting their questions, and allowing them to participate in reasoning about family decisions. Many parents unconsciously repeat patterns of intellectual dismissal learned in their own childhoods: shutting down curiosity, demanding obedience without explanation, or treating children's questions as inconvenient rather than valuable. Epistemic justice in parenting means recognizing that even young children are thinking beings whose questions deserve engagement. It means explaining decisions, inviting input, and treating disagreement as an intellectual exchange rather than a challenge to authority. This practice has profound effects: children who are epistemically respected develop confidence in their own thinking, stronger relationships with parents, and fewer reasons to hide or deceive. For parents, practicing epistemic justice with their children becomes a way of extending to them the intellectual dignity that Sor Juana fought to claim.