Meiosis and mitosis are both forms of division of the nucleus in eukaryotic cells.
Meiosis is responsible for genetic variation while mitosis is responsible for genetic sameness. Sameness, because mitosis produces two daughter cells with the same genetic component as the parent cell. Meiosis on the other hand produces haploid sex cells or gametes (which contain a single copy of each chromosome) from diploid cells (which contain two copies of each chromosome).