Stereotypes have been a part of society for a very long time and are still present today. Both Svava Jakobsdottir's "A Story for Children" and Alice Munro's "The Office" share a common stereotype regarding the female gender. The female stereotype is the most concrete of all stereotypes which explains why both short stories possess a very similar nature for a typical woman. This stereotypical female is expected to have a delicate character, to take care of the house work and the children, to have no personal identity, and to be relatively simple and inferior in comparison to men.
             The first aspect of the female stereotype found in the stories as well as reality is the female character. Women are generally seen as fragile individuals. Society believes that a woman has no self-confidence and needs support from some external element. This characteristic is found in "A Story for Children" where the mother has to go to a magazine to "[seek] courage and conformation that she was on the right track in life" (Jakobsdottir 527).
             In "The Office," the women's fragile character is suggested by Mr. Malley. He says that he is happy that his wife didn't see the obscene comments that were written in the washroom because it "upsets a woman that's had a nice bringing up" (Munro 922). Since Mr. Malley is a man, the filthy language didn't upset him but it would certainly upset the fragile character of a woman. Mr. Malley touches the stereotype of the delicate women once more when he says that the plain and empty office is not comfortable for a woman. He suggests ways in which the office could become more comfortable for the narrator since "a women wants things a bit cosier" (Munro 918).
             Another stereotype concerning women is that they are responsible for taking care of the house and chores that come with it. In Jakobsdottir's story, the mother is portrayed as being "true to her nature and de...