Virginia Woolf's Attitudes Towards Women

For many centuries, it was conventional for women to be deprived of their human rights. Legislation prevented many females from having power and achieving their fullest potential. Eventually, many women, especially those living in England, took the initiative by participating in numerous suffrage organizations, such as the Nation Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, in order to fight against the way society viewed them. As a result of persistent effort, women gradually obtained their civil liberties such as the equal rights for women to vote under the Equal Franchise Act in 1928. However, in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, written in 1929, she focuses on the idea that men and women are still not equal. During her time, women still struggled

In A Room of One’s Own, Woolf emphasizes the harsh reality of women’s opportunities, which are limited in society when compared to those of men. Women had a different experience in their education because there was barely anyone supporting their colleges with funding and resources as it was more likely that people would favor and assist men in their schooling. At Woolf’s fictional all-male school known as Oxbridge University, she implies the typical male student would dine with fancy partridge and wine and enjoy exclusive luxurious campus features like the library. However, women do not have the same lavish food and resources at their educational institution. Instead, at Fernham, the women’s education establishment that is also created in Woolf’s work, it is easy for anyone to note the

Born into a wealthy family herself, Woolf believed that “women must have money and a room of her own if she is to write” (Woolf 339). Females need to have their own financial independence to get their own space in order to be free to explore their creativity, thoughts, and aspirations. For instance, Mary, Woolf’s fictional narrator, inherited a fortune from her deceased aunt. As a result, Mary was given the chance to live independently as her “aunt’s legacy unveiled the sky, and substituted for the large and imposing figure of a gentleman, a view of open sky” (Woolf 360). Mary was able to write and think for herself without the concern of financial issues or the need to get a male partner, who is conventionally the person who brings in the income of the household. Woolf is correct in her statement because money is capable of giving people advantages such as eliminating the need to sacrifice goals and ambitions in order to obtain financial stability. Woolf used her fictitious character Mary as the example of the rare woman who was able to afford her liberating lifestyle. Unlike Mary, the majority of females, unfortunately, in Woolf’s time were not affluent because they were not born with money. Most women were told to focus on taking care of the house and depend on the income of their husbands. Principally, money is a vital factor that can