Combating Female Gender Stereotypes in Rachel Vincent’s Stray Anonymous College

This novel is the first of six books in Rachel Vincent’s series titled The Shifters. The series is based on a world where werecats exist and it depicts their everyday life in the werecat community, while also letting the reader peak into their gender roles. The reader sees the happenings and follows the storyline through the main character’s eyes, who is Faythe Sanders. The first novel, Stray, starts out with Faythe having to travel back to her parents’ home from university because they have to deal with stray werecats that mean harm for each of those who follow the rules of the community. The story and this strange supernatural world is, however, not so different from that of the human beings. Just in the human society, werecats also face the distinguished gender roles. As only a small amount of female werecats exists, they need to pay extra attention to what is expected by them. More precisely, women are expected to stay in the domestic fear and care for the next generation. However, Rachel Vincent breaks up with these traditions, and shows that female werecats can do just as much as their male counterparts.

First of all, there is a highly anticipated pressure on female werecats to continue the species. The only reason why...