Virginia Woolf a Feminist for the Ages

Virginia Woolf’s book A Room of One’s Own is an important piece of literature with the main theme being women’s rights. In almost every direction she looked women were not allowed. I believe she desperately wanted the right to an education. The anguish she must have felt at not having that right must have tormented her. This book tell us that women must have a room of their own to pursue their dreams.

In Woolf’s time, women had no rights. Her beliefs are strategically placed throughout her book. She begins in chapter one, “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” (page 1229). A woman must have enough independence to provide for herself and realize her dreams. As she was preparing to speak about women and fiction, she came across the idea to read a book written by Charles Lamb. When she approached the library, she was refused access because she was female. “but here I was actually at the door which leads into the library itself. I must have opened it, for instantly there issued, like a guardian angel barring the way with a flutter of black gown instead of white wings, a deprecating, silvery, kindly gentleman, who regretted in a low voice as he waved me back that ladies are only admitted to the library if accompanied by a Fellow of the College or furnished with a letter of introduction.” That is the most outrageous thing I have ever heard. I am sure Woolf felt the exact same way because she said, “That a famous library has been cursed by a woman is a matter of complete indifference to a famous library.” (Page 1231)

I would love to hear what Virginia Woolf would think about women’s rights today. Would it be more than she could have ever dreamed, or would it not be nearly enough? What I do know is that she was a very brave and strong woman. She desired respect and independence. Maybe if she would have been born sixty years later she would have seen the effects of what she fought for… women to have “A Room of One’s Own.”