Identity, Opportunity and Equality

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Virginia Woolf was born January 25, 1882 to an English household in London. Her father was Sir Leslie Steven, a historian and author who was a major figure during the golden age of mountaineering; her mother Julia Prinsep Steven, an India native, nurse and also an author of the profession. With two substantial successors as her parents, Woolf was one of seven siblings granted with majestic opportunities. These opportunities included being educated by her parents. During this time girls were not allowed to go to school and many did not have the privilege of parents whom were able to instil education. Knowing this, Virginia was bound to excel in life. In fact, Woolf utilized her privileged life to her potential. She spent time in numerous locations which she eventually incorporated into a lot of her work and modernist novels such as, Profession for Women. In the essay, Profession for Women Woolf discusses, “the Victorian phantom known as the Angel in the House that selfless, sacrificial woman in the nineteenth century whose sole purpose in life was to soothe, to flatter, and to comfort the male half of the world’s population.” The essay shows how women struggled daily with the views Victorian society placed upon them. The ways of the Victorian era transcended over into the modernist times because some women were too afraid to explore their true selves. However, Virginia did not accept these ways because she knew as a woman she could not be complete if she lived up to the Victorian standards. Woolf determined that unless one has explored and experimented the new things attainable from the world then they also cannot be complete. In this essay, I will be responding to Virginia Woolf’s essay Professions of Women and the struggle of ...

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... take a backseat and hide our intellect behind the soft exterior of emotion. As said in Virginia Woolf’s essay, professions of women, we will always have hardship because we have to work harder than the male race.

Works Cited

Wolf, Virginia, and Mitchell A. Leaska. "Professions for Women" by Virginia Woolf." "Professions for Women" by Virginia Woolf. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2014.
Lemaster, Tracy. "'Girl With A Pen': Girls' Studies And Third-Wave Feminism In A Room Of One's Own And 'Professions For Women'." Feminist Formations 24.2 (2012): 77-99. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 2 May 2014
Bourke, P. J.. N.p.. Web. 30 Mar 2014. .
Rumbarger, Lee. "Housekeeping: Women Modernists' Writing On War And Home." Women's Studies 35.1 (2006): 1-15. Literary Reference Center. Web. 30 Mar. 2014

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