Who constitutes what roles a woman and a man, or a girl and a boy for that matter, should partake in order to conform to societal standards? Both Alice Munro's "Boys and Girls" and Kate Chopin's "Desiree's Baby" explore the different gender stereotypes set forth between the sexes in a feminist approach to portraying how before the women's movement, women were held back from their dreams because of what society expected from them. Many of these gender stereotypes are responsible for keeping the protagonists in the two works from reaching their own personal potential.
             Pertaining to stereotypes, one major similarity between the two works is the description of the differences between women's and a men's roles in society and the household. In Munro's "Boys and Girls," the story begins with the stereotype of where men and women belong. The narrator's father is always outside with the animals doing 'manly' work, such as preparing the furs, while the mother stays inside to do 'women's work' such as preparing food and cleaning the house. The narrator finds 'women's work' "endless, dreary, and peculiarly depressing," and in contrast, she finds her father's work "ritualistically important," giving the impression that the narrator does not believe her mother's work is quite as important as her father's. Furthermore, the mother is pictured as the stereotypical house-wife who does not want to see the filth involved in the process of skinning animals, especially in her own home. Even as the narrator tries to fight these stereotypes, she describes her mother as trying to hold her back to help around the house like a girl should. Also, the grandmother reproaches her and tries to correct her tomboyish characteristics saying, "Girls keep their knees together when they sit down" and "Girls don't slam doors like that."
             Stemming from the stereotypical differences between men and women, women are also portrayed as inferior and not as capable...