Summary Of Virginia Woolf Professions For Women

Novelist Virginia Woolf in 1931 delivered a talk on “Professions for Women” about women in the workforce. Woolf utilizes extended metaphors, understatement, anaphora, rhetorical questions, and personal anecdotes throughout her speech. In hopes of reaching out to women, Woolf seeks to convey the idea of not feeling restricted in pursuing a career of choice and to encourage them to surpass the limitations placed on them by society when delivering her speech to the Women’s Service League. When this speech was projected in the 1930s, about one fourth of women in America were in the workforce fortunately not decreasing from the depression. Throughout history, women have experienced many difficulties in achieving success in their careers. The inferior

The angel becomes present in Woolf’s speech, as she describes “She slipped behind me and whispered:’ My dear, you are a young woman. You are writing about a book that has been written by a man. Be sympathetic, be tender, flatter: deceive, use all the arts and wiles of our sex. Never let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own. Above all, be pure.” Woolf uses this extended metaphor to symbolically concur the Angel in the House by telling her audience that all women are responsible for the killing of the angel too. “Had I not killed her she would have killed me. She would have plucked the heart out of my writing.” This extended metaphor empowers her audience and achieves her message of informing women that they have the power to change the roles of women in society. She tells her audience that she has killed the “Angel in the House” meaning she has broken the barriers of herself and men. If she would not have taken a stand she would have been miserable like most women scattering the demands of the other gender. Giving her place, Woolf believes once she has “killed” the angel she has now brought more life and creativity into her work. As Woolf talks about the killing of the “Angel in the House” she teaches the women that men will not consider women human beings until women are able

Anaphora puts emphasize on certain words in order to induce an evaluation of women in the workforce. She accents how far women have come and where they still have to go within all of these sentence starters. “For the first time in history you are able to ask them; for the first time you are able to decide for yourselves what the answers should be.” In the 1930s women used to be subordinate compared to men, and the caregivers of the children, but throughout time this has all changed. Women might not have all of the benefits that men do like equal pay, but they are able to see their importance in society. Repeating “For the first time” puts into focus the changes of the roles of women and reflect what they have already done. This talk also leaves women with a sense of hope when it comes to their actions. Woolf invests the power in each woman listening to her speech allowing them to believe they can push their bounds and retrieve their natural rights. “I do not believe you know. I do not believe that anybody can know until she has expressed herself in all the arts and professions open to human skill.” Repeating the words “I do not believe” also draws the listeners’ attention to the fact that some people, mainly men, believe they have a sense of knowledge about how the world should be. No person, no woman knows the capability they have until they try. This goes