Why is it that men have always had power, influence, wealth and fame, while women have had nothing but children? In this essay, first published in 1929, Woolf exhorts young women to take advantage of the opportunities they have.

A Room of One’s Own, based on a lecture given at Girton College Cambridge, is one of the great feminist polemics. Woolf’s blazing writing on female creativity, the role of the writer, and the silent fate of Shakespeare’s imaginary sister remains a powerful reminder of a woman’s need for financial independence and intellectual freedom.