A Room of One’s Own

A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf, first published in 1929.[1] Divided into six chapters, the work is based on two lectures Woolf delivered in October 1928 at two women's colleges, Newnham College and Girton College, of the University of Cambridge.

The essay discusses a variety of topics and uses many metaphors and thought experiments to illustrate her points, particularly focusing on women's lack of free self-expression. Her metaphor of a fish explains her most essential point, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction".

She writes of a woman whose thought had "let its line down into the stream". As the woman starts to think of an idea, a guard enforces a rule whereby women are not allowed to walk on the grass. Abiding by the rule, the woman loses her idea.