Introduction

Virginia Woolf wrote A Room of One's Own in 1929 after she presented lectures on 'Women and Fiction' at the two newly established women's Colleges at Cambridge University the year prior. 

She dines at the resplendent men's colleges, contrasting them sharply with the poverty of the women’s colleges which had not benefited from the same access to wealth and power. The economic basis of access to influence, education and cultural institutions leads her to ask many questions, including how far women, who had just gained the right to vote, had acquired genuine equality. 

Her famous claim that 'a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction' has become a metaphor for a wider argument about the underpinnings of gender equality. While her interrogation is now almost 100 years old, many of the issues she raised then are still relevant. 

Here, Associate Professor Fiona Jenkins and Lara Nicholls talk about A Room of One's Own and its importance in our times.

Music: From “String Quartet in E minor” composed by Dame Ethel Mary Smyth and performed by the Archaeus String Quartet. Released by LORELT (Lontano Records Ltd). To purchase the full digital album, visit: www.lorelt.co.uk/114

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