Primary Status and Roles

When we hear the word status, we think of people who have a lot of money, power, and influence in society. Sociologists use the word status in reference to “any social identity recognized as meaningful by the group or society”. A status is a “position that carries with it certain expectations, rights, and responsibilities”. There are many statuses that we are born with, such as our ethnicity, race or sex, but there are also the other statuses through our lives that we enter and exit. The three primary statuses I feel that I occupy and are most important to my identity would be that I am a mother, a wife, and a photographer. I feel that of all the statuses I myself embody, those are the ones that are most important to me, those are the ones that consume most of my time, and those are the ones that others identify with me. All three of my primary statuses are achieved statuses, and that type of status is defined as “a status that we attain through talent, ability, effort, or other unique characteristics”. Whereas ascribed statuses are “received involuntarily, without regard to our unique talents, skills, or accomplishments”, all three of my primary statuses were not received involuntarily. When we occupy a certain status, society expects us to follow certain sets of behaviors, and to play a certain “role”. We are constantly being watched and our roles are constantly being evaluated by society. I feel as a mother, I am supposed to perform the role of being caring, loving and attentive. For most mothers, this role comes naturally, but when society thinks we should be perfect, patient and calm with our children at all times, we run into role conflict while in public. There are times when we have to discipline our children, there are times when we are worn down and lose what little patience we had left after repeating the same