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n the article “Personality and birth-order theory” by Janice Keene in Family Ties (March, 20, 2007), a magazine of the alumni association of Hyles-Anderson College, the United States, it is noted that birth order influences one’s personality. The first, the middle, the last and only children have their own personalities differing from each other. Keene gave an explanation.

First-born children, she began, commonly understand their parents’ situation and sense of values more than other children do. They take more responsibility and moral demand to be a model for their brothers and sisters. Middle children possess flexibility in their way of thinking. Compared to the first, the second and only children, they usually gain less attention from their parents, so that they grow more creative in making friends and adjusting to their surroundings, to sharing their ideas and attention. Meanwhile, the youngest children are clever in getting their parent’s attention. They have a more intimate relationship with their parents than the other children.

This birth-order theory as explained by Keene describes many cases in our daily lives. However, her article seems gender-biased. It seems to indicate that the male first-born, the first-born sons, and only sons have more cognitive abilities and chance to progress than female ones. This tendency appears in her explanation about first-born children and only children. The examples she gave were all about men.

In actual fact, the female first-born, the first-born daughters and only daughters have the same potential and opportunities as male ones. There are many examples of this: Megawati Soekarnoputri, the former president of Indonesia, is a first-born child; Benazir Bhutto, the late former prime minister of Pakistan, was the first child of the former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto; and Condoleezza Rice, the former US secretary of state in president George W. Bush’s second term, is an only child.

To precisely define the birth-order theory, we need to see reality evenly. This theory is a generalization of facts, but, as Keene emphasizes in the conclusion of her article, it does not exactly correspond to everybody’s experience.


Cecep Zakarias El Bilad
Malang, East Java