Virginia Woolf Gender Roles

Virginia Woolf discusses a theme in her book A Room of One’s Own that would speak to any woman living in the twentieth century or, for case in point, any preceding century. She delves into the subject of gender inequality by comparing and contrasting the woman in reality to the literary woman of the Elizabethan era. Woolf finds little factual information about women of this time period aside from men’s right to treat women in a sorely negative manner. Men were shamelessly allowed to beat and otherwise mistreat their daughters and wives; and daughters were quickly betrothed and married to be forever under the rule of a male “lord and master” (Woolf 238). As Woolf found, aside from Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scotland, women did not play a significant …show more content…
Fiction portrays women as “heroic and mean; splendid and sordid…as great as a man” in some instances, however, this is purely fiction since women in reality are “completely insignificant” (Woolf 239). The reality of the situation is uncomplicated though: women were simply the property of men; they lacked in education and the basics of reading and writing. It stands to reason that such a woman would not be mentioned in historical accounts of the time. To convince the reader of gender inequality in society, Woolf creates the character of Judith Shakespeare, a sister to the renowned William Shakespeare (Woolf 241). Judith is cut from the same cloth and has the same ambitions, yet she will never receive the same education or opportunities as her brother. And if she so chooses to follow in a similar path as her brother, she along with her works will be shunned. Practicality demanded that limitations be set upon women, keeping them in the home and unable to be anything more than a figure in the background of a great man (Woolf