Gender Inequality In Boys And Girls By Alice Munro

claims to believe in gender equality. Throughout the novel Coverdale and Zenobia discuss the issues of feminism and gender roles. Although he appears to sympathize with Zenobia’s feminist cause, there were occasions in the novel which proved otherwise. Coverdale’s support for Zenobia’s fight for equality might only be an act to win her approval. The purpose of the Blithedale community was for it to be a place where individuals would be treated equally, however, Coverdale’s mindset has a challenging time of remembering the goal of the community. During The Blithedale Romance, Coverdale would be analyzing people’s masculine and feminine traits. Coverdale does believe in gender stereotypes by constantly thinking about the aspects each gender should possess and his desire for power over women.

Whether it is the past or the present, there have always been gender roles in society. In most homes, it is the woman’s responsibility to take care of the house. This includes cleaning, meal preparations, raising and taking care of the children as well as the husband. Compared to the men who take care of the more physical activities, such as yard work. It was known throughout many years that it was a woman’s responsibility to stay in the house while the man would go out and look for work to provide money for his family. Although the intensity of gender roles has changed, it still exists.

they also show the hard times those women authors faced during this period when they were

   Recent history boldly notes the protests and political unrest surrounding the Vietnam Conflict during the 1960s and 70s. However, equally important in this era are the women who pushed for gender role reevaluation and publicly rebelled against the established social norm of a woman's "place." Although Alice Munro may not have been burning her bra on the courthouse steps, threads of a feminist influence can be found in "Boys and Girls." Munro's main character, a girl probably modeled after Munro's own childhood experiences on an Ontario farm, faces her awakening body and the challenge of developing her social identity in a man's world. "The girl," an unnamed character, acts as

The adults in the story expect the children to grow into the gender role that their sex has assigned to them. This is seen in several places throughout the story, such as when the narrator hears her mother

As the character begins to balance out her schoolwork, band, and relationships between friends and family, she also has to deal with her brother on a daily basic and worry about him than more herself. Her family is in danger with his spells of rage that happen randomly, ones that he himself do not understand is hurting him. He is calmed by his sister, who barely has enough time to be around him so often. Her parents begin to think about sending him to another home, where he would be happier and learn to be taken care of. He would get visits, but his sister has spent her life loving and protecting him, but if they do not take action, he will hurt somebody, which eventually does happen. To this effect, she attempts to become a bad girl that goes against her parent’s wishes, wears eyeliner and draws skulls and such on her sneakers, and skips class and starts having

According to Aldous Huxley in his novel “Brave New World” Huxley mentions that “men have far more superior roles than women do in brave new world,”and I for one do not agree with the way Huxley denotes women in his novel. Moreover, the real question is, Are men and women equal in Brave New World? In Brave New World the new world is considered to be a world in which everyone is equal in every aspect because there are isn’t any traditional work women do mentioned. For instance, there is no cooking mentioned so it implies that women do not do the cooking and they do not do the cleaning either because they have machines that do it for them the “vacuum”.

Since the beginning of time, gender roles have existed in society.  Women were assigned the tasks of child-care and food preparation.  Men performed most activities that required physical strength.  As society progressed, the role of women did not.  Although less emphasis is placed on gender roles today, gender roles still exist. In 1968, Alice Munro wrote, "Boys and Girls" to address the confusion that gender roles may cause in a modern society.

Gender expectations in society were not only limited to marriage guidelines, but went as far as to outline what a woman should wear and say. The proper Victorian woman was supposed to always be suitably dressed. This means that she should wear a dress that covered everything down to her ankles. It was even scandalous if a woman were to show her feet in public. A proper woman should also always be conservative with her speech and hide her sexuality. If a woman were to speak about or show her sexuality, she would automatically be seen as ‘loose’ and be looked down upon. Swartz-Levine describes how ‘loose women’ were seen when she explains: “…an Imprudent woman is looked on as a kind of Monster; a thing diverted and distorted from its proper

“Everything we read constructs us, makes us who we are, by presenting our image of ourselves as girls and women, as boys and men” – M. Fox

In the early beginning of time, gender roles have exited in society. Women are assigned to participate in the food preparation, and taking care of kids, while men participate in activities that require physical strength. Hardship against society norms and ideas of how gender roles should be, or threats of a feminist influence on those gender roles are found in the “Boys and Girls” written by Alice Munro. This story introduces an unnamed girl who faces the daily challenges and awaking truth of developing her identity in the society that is ruled by male domination. Through first-person narration, Munro indicates the girl’s interpretation of femininity by reciting the girl's understanding of her parents formed by indoor and outdoor territoriality.

The daughter is bored with her mother's dreams and lets her pride take over. She often questions her self-worth, and she decides that she respects herself as nothing more than the normal girl that she is and always will be. Her mother is trying to mold her into something that she can never be, she believes, and only by her futile attempts to rebel can she hold on to the respect that she has for herself. The daughter is motivated only to fail so that she may continue on her quest to be normal. Her only motivation for success derives from her own vanity; although she cannot admit it to herself or her mother, she wants the audience to see her as that something that she is not, that same something that her mother hopes she could be.

“Boys and Girls” is a short story, by Alice Munro, which illustrates a tremendous growing period into womanhood, for a young girl living on a fox farm in Canada, post World War II. The young girl slowly comes to discover her ability to control her destiny and her influences on the world. The events that took place over the course of the story helped in many ways to shape her future. From these events one can map the Protagonist’s future. The events that were drawn within the story provided the Protagonist with a foundation to become an admirable woman.

The young girl in the story is struggling with finding her own gender identity. She would much

If your middle school daughter was reading a book that involved sexual explicit scenes, homosexuality, and sexism, would you be comfortable with this? For most, the answer would be no. This is the reason why I believe that the story The Color Purple written by Alice Walker should be banned.