A Room of One’s Own is an influential 1929 extended essay by Virginia Woolf that argues that women need both financial independence and a private space, “a room of her own”, to be creative and achieve artistic equality. 

The essay originated from lectures Woolf delivered at Newnham College and Girton College she gave at Cambridge in 1928. It is written in a conversational, often humorous, tone that guides the reader through Woolf’s observations and arguments about women’s place in literature and society. A central and memorable part of the essay is the imagined story of Shakespeare’s sister, a woman with the same talent but who is unable to write due to lack of opportunity and dies young. 

The essay explores themes of social injustice, sexism, the history of women in literature, and the need for financial and personal autonomy for women artists.  It is a foundational text of feminist literary criticism and has inspired generations of women to pursue their creative and intellectual goals.  

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