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This article addresses children’s sibling relationships as a site of social learning involving the (re)production of femininity and masculinity, drawing on in‐depth qualitative interviews with children aged 8–12. We begin by noting the lack of focus on gender in the majority of previous work on siblings. After introducing our own study, we look at the ways in which children understood their siblings in relation to themselves, highlighting points of closeness and division, and pointing to class distinctions around individuality and collectivity. We then explore how ‘talk’ and ‘activity’ are key gendered features of children’s relationships with their sisters and brothers, revealing versions of femininity and masculinity, and interplays of power. Finally, we consider how these gendered features of sibling practices have implications for children’s ability to deal with change in relationships with their sisters and brothers, especially living apart from each other, and we return to class as a feature of their understandings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sisters and sistering are peculiarly absent from the sociology of the family. Sociologists document women's role as mothers, carers, workers, daughters and wives yet neglect their experiences as sisters. Our knowledge of this widespread tie derives more from media images than from women's own experiences. This article explores several reasons for this marginalization from the sensational depiction of sisters in popular culture as either friends or rivals, and their mythical status in feminist politics, to the specialized interest of psy professionals and policy makers in childhood rivalry and sibling solidarity among the elderly. It reveals the paradox surrounding the silence of sistering as part of family lives and the visibility of sisterhood in the public and sociological imagination. Drawing on a qualitative study of sister relationships among girls and women aged 6-50, it illustrates the complexities of sistering as personal lived experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]