This is an
essay by Virgina Woolf, first publised in 1929, a time when women were still struggling with becoming active with a men's society. It is based on the theory that if a women wants to write she must be able to support herself and
pay for her own space. It is based in a time when men and women had their own spaces and they were segregated. There were colleges for men and colleges for women and the two were never to be together. Men were
taught to think and be the active money makers and women were taught to get married and raise children. If a women in
society wanted to be alone and not marry she had better be able to pay for herself, but they were never taught to. This essay raises the
questions of why should a women not be allowed to have the knowledge that a man is taught so that she can pay for herself and have a room of her own? It poses the
Question of why are we treated
different and why are there so many different expectations for women than there are for men? If Virginia Woolf could see us now would she feel any different than she did when she wrote this essay? Would she see that expectations have changed and we go to college together and learn the same things and possess the same jobs? Or do the women in the same fields as men still get laughed off or snuffed because they are trying to fit into a mans world? Her essay raises the question of things that need to change; is society so different now than it was in 1929? Just because women are educated now and offered the same jobs as men are we still getting equal treatment? This essay should be read and the questions should be brought to light of the changes that have been made or may not have been made. Excellent piece for discussion groups, humanities classes, or compare and contrast past with now essays. Virginia Woolf writes wonderfully and always makes us think with our minds, not with society.
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