The intent of this paper is to compare and contrast the ways in which the identities, aspirations, and achievements of two upper class females were affected by the aspects of family, class, gender, and particularly race. Race will be particularly scrutinized because the individual interviewed, Alesha (or Lee), is a female of Italian/Irish-French-German descent, whereas I am an individual of Mexican/Chinese descent. There are certainly discernible differences in the growth of an upper-class White female and the growth of a minority female, and it is my purpose to dissect those differences and explicate them in sociological terms, while touching upon how the issues of class and gender also have an effect.
Lee was born into a family that was already very economically established due to the fact that her parents had her relatively late in life. …