In 1928 Virginia Woolf was asked to give a lecture on “Women and Fiction.” She found herself wondering what exactly that meant. Where to start? Where to end? The notion of a female writer was practically non-existent until the 18th century, and was not firmly rooted until forerunners such as the Brontës, Austen, and Mary Ann Evans. Yet even these revolutionaries were victims of the social pressures of their time, deciding to maintain anonymity. Most likely you recognise Mary Ann Evans only when she is referred to by her pen-name, George Eliot.
Woolf reflects upon the history of women’s writing, asking why it took so long for women to produce masterpieces. In Woolf’s lecture, subsequently transformed to an extended essay, the answer she settles upon is that men have kept women in poverty. A poverty of both material things and mental enrichment. A poverty of things they could call their own, or a room in which they may sit uninterrupted. Certainly, this is true of the past, but almost a century after publication, do Woolf’s words hold up now?
“Give her a room of her own and five hundred a year, let her speak her mind”
In the United Kingdom, female education is thriving more than ever with research from Cambridge University claiming that women and girls are outperforming male students all the way from primary school to university. This sheer amount of progress, less than 150 years since the first British woman achieved a University degree (Eliza Orme), stands as testament to just what women can achieve when they are allowed the liberty to think of things other than dinner and sufficient space to do that thinking.
Turning specifically to literature, Woolf’s focus, we will find that (in 2020 at least) women were both reading and publishing more than men. Undeniably this represents women’s progression in the arts, but there appears to be a downside unanticipated by Woolf. Despite there being more new literature written by women, a 2023 study found that men frequently avoid reading books written by women, whereas women will read books written by both men and women.
Furthermore, many make the argument that in the 21st century literature has lost its prestige, quality, and cultural impact. There is a persistent suspicion that when a field becomes feminised, its prestige apparently diminishes. The attitude seems to be, anything she can do, must not be worth doing.
Even though the trend is to belittle or undervalue literature, women have been excelling in other fields. In 2025, women made up 41% of academic researchers, a number which is steadily increasing.
“I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse perhaps to be locked in; and thinking of the safety and prosperity of the one sex and of the poverty and insecurity of the other and of the effect of tradition and of the lack of tradition upon the mind of a writer”
It is easy to forget, but also important to remember, that women across the world are not in such a privileged position as we are the United Kingdom. Worldwide, women are still left responsible for 75% of unpaid domestic labour. With dishes always left to be washed and children to be tended to, so many women are left tidying desks rather than writing at them. Some cases are more extreme than others. As of 2022, women in Afghanistan are forbidden from pursuing higher education. In four countries in the world, young girls who are pregnant or are mothers are banned from education.
The fight for the right to be educated is not a safe battle. We turn to the story of Malala Yousafzai, whose feminist and educational activism in Taliban-occupied Swat, Pakistan resulted in an attempt on her life. After surviving and recovering, she started the Malala Fund, a charity committed to advocating for girls’ education. She has funded schools and resources for underprivileged children all around the world including her home country as well as Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Lebanon (for the use of Syrian refugees) amongst others.
Her story serves as a stark reminder of the weight of a good education and how many women and girls are denied one.
“It was a thousand pities that the woman who could write like that, whose mind was tuned to nature and reflection, should have been forced to anger and bitterness. But how could she have helped herself?”
Woolf hoped that women would stop writing with anger, claiming that no complete work of art would be constructed from female hands whilst rage fuelled their workings. Perhaps in the novels of today this has been achieved. Women can write of love and beauty, and also of loss and despair without the interpenetrating anger of a caged bird. Perhaps this makes their writing better, but it is done at the expense of forgetting the women for whom we should be very angry. We hope that one day women will have no cause to be angry, but until that day, we must not forget why we should be.
“It is necessary to have five hundred a year and a room with a lock on the door if you are to write fiction or poetry”
We cannot argue, for a woman to reach her full potential, to be able to produce great works of art and literature, she must have the means to support herself and the peace of mind and the space to work without interruption. However, I would argue when Woolf turns the key in her door she locks out something much more important: other women.
For all of time, men have had men with whom they can share ideas and through discourse form schools of thought, new genres, and styles. Ideas have never come from one mind only. If a woman locks herself away, rearing her head only to seek publication, she misses the opportunity to achieve something much more valuable, the exchange of female perspectives. Organisations such as this one, HerCampus serve as a shining example. All through history we have had the development of male philosophies. Only through collaboration can we naturally form a female one. We must ask ourselves and each other: Who are you? What interests you? What do youthink? We must find out what woman is beyond feminism.
Overall, Woolf’s words hit as hard as now as they did in 1928. Whether taken as a call to arms or a reminder for gratitude, Woolf shows us how far we have come and how far we have left to go. Whenever you get a moment to, think. Whenever you get the space to, write. If you have neither, we must all carve it out for you. Women should not all speak as one, but collectively we have the volume to be heard.