Virginia Woolf as a feminist figure:

Who was Virginia Woolf?

She was born in Kensington, London in 1882. This English writer was one of the most
prominent authors of the modernist movement form the early twentieth century since
she took a great interest in adding a wide range of literary tools, making her way of
writing unique and credible.
Throughout her career, Woolf spoke regularly at colleges and universities, wrote
moving essays and books, and also self-published a long list of short stories. By her
mid-forties, she had established herself as both an intellectual and an innovative
thinker and writer. Despite her outward success, she continued to regularly suffer from
bouts of depression and dramatic mood swings that ultimately led her to commit
suicide in 1941, at the age of 59.

Feminism: a short definition

According to the Gender Studies and Feminism Dictionary, Feminism is a multidisciplinary approach to sex and gender equality understood through social theories
and political activism.
Historically, it has evolved from the critical examination of inequality between sexes
to a more wide focus on the social constructions of gender and sexuality.
Feminism is closely related and involved in areas such as reproductive rights,
domestic violence, gay marriage, and workplace issues.

Feminism in literature:

Feminism has used literary texts extensively in making and disseminating its
meanings to the whole world. Literary and literary-critical texts were central to this
movement, always trying to conquer women's liberation and equality. The significance
of literature for feminism also gives a particular place to those writers whose work
spans both feminist polemic and fiction or poetry, including Virginia Woolf, between
others.

Woolf as a feminist figure:

According to Laura Marcus, on her book Woolf's feminism and feminism's Woolf
(2000), she explains that the relationship between Virginia Woolf and feminism is a

symbiotic one since her feminism shaped her writing profoundly, but also inspired
and contributed to later works and thoughts on this topic.
Woolf spoke very directly to her concerns on gender issues in her book A Room of
One's Own (1929) where she addresses the reader in the first-person, a voice or
voices that seemed to speak out from her deep thoughts. This book is considered the
first great work in feminist criticism, and the author deploys a number of
methodologies to support this: she uses historical and sociological analysis, fictional
hypothesis, and philosophy to support her initial and controversial thesis: "A woman
must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.", meaning that
Woolf tries to tie their minority status largely to socioeconomic factors, specifically
their poverty and lack of privacy.

Themes in A Room of Ones Own:

a) 500 Pounds and a Room of One's Own

Woolf gives an historical argument that lack of money and privacy have prevented
women from writing with genius in the past. Without money, women are dependent
on men; and without privacy, constant interruptions block their creativity.
b) The Aggression of Men
Men historically belittle women as a means of asserting their own superiority; plus
they also feel threatened by the thought of losing their power, thus reducing women
to enlarge themselves.
Just as women's writing suffers from the emotions of anger and fear, men's writing
suffers from aggression, they expose their own prejudices, making their writing more
about them and less about their subject.
c) Gender inequality and institutionalized sexism

There is an emphasis on the fact that women are treated unequally in Woolfs society,
producing less impressive works of writing from women than men. She even creates a
fictional character to illustrate this, Judith Shakespeare, Williams imaginary twin
sister who is discriminated by society despite shes as talented as William.
Other examples: is the fact that women arent allowed even in the library at the men's
college without special permission; only men can retain their money, thus giving
social and economic power in society to enter universities. Woolf, by means of these
examples criticizes patriarchal English society that limits women's opportunity.