Even as recently as the 1920s the historical lack of great female writers was often considered as evidence of women’s inferiority. Virginia Woolf disagreed. In her 1929 essay A Room of One’s Own, she argues that creativity is impossible without privacy and freedom from financial worries – and that throughout history women have had neither. As a result, no tradition of great female writing existed to inspire women. Woolf’s focus on the everyday suppression of women was a turning point in feminism, marking a realization that gaining legal and voting rights was just the first step on the road to true equality. Ordinary, everyday life had to be altered too. Woolf’s writing inspired a generation of feminist writing and thinking. Her essay remains deeply relevant and valid today, providing a framework for analysis of any social group suffering injustice.
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