Childs was born in 1969 and began lecturing at the University of Bristol in 2009. In 2014 she published research with
Rosie Campbell which indicated that women conservatives were not as right wing as male conservatives on issues that related to economics. In 2014 she moved to Birkbeck College and then Royal Holloway which are both parts of the University of London. In 2020 she started work at the University of Edinburgh. In 2006 Childs and
Mona Lena Krook published the book they had edited
Women, Gender, and Politics: A Reader. In 2015 she was seconded to work in the UK Parliament and as a result "The Good Parliament (TGP) Report" was published. Its recommendations that included maternity leave were gradually adopted. ==Selected works==