Ch.5

The social statuses that I found for myself were as follows:

1) Wife

2) Daughter

3) Sister

4) Nanny

5) Student

6) Caucasian

7) Female

8) Middle income

My achieved statuses are wife, nanny, student, and possibly middle income. I believe income status is both achieved and ascribed because you are born into a certain financial status but you can also achieve a different status later on. It is something you can change, although many people stay in the class they were born into because that's all they know. I was born into a middle class/income home, I have stayed there into my marriage and maybe someday it will be different. I am a first generation college student and because of that I may break the generational status quo.

My ascribed statuses are female, Caucasian, sister, daughter and middle class. These are the things that I have been born into.

The roles I am expected to play as a consequence of these statuses:

Wife- As a Christian woman I am expected to be submissive to my husband when the decisions he makes are not against what God would want. I am expected to be selfless as a spouse, to spend time with my husband.

Student- I am expected to get good grades, be attentive, present, and respectful.

Nanny- Follow the parents wishes, attentive to children, helpful, productive (making sure child's duties and my own get done).

My role as a student and a nanny conflicts with my role as a wife a lot. I have to sacrifice time with my husband at night because I get home from work at 6:30 and then I have homework to do. This takes up a lot of time and sometimes I don't get to see him until 10:30. My role as a wife tends to take a back seat when I am in school. I am constantly thinking of ways to bring balance into school, work, marriage, and all the other roles I hold. This is role conflict at it's best and it is not easy to prioritize sometimes.