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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“A woman must have money and a room of her own...”

Our Readers:

Julia Gillard

Julia Gillard was the 27th Prime Minister of Australia and is the inaugural Chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at Kings College London and the Australian National University, which through research, practice and advocacy, is addressing women’s under-representation in leadership.

Lara White

Originally from Melbourne, Lara is a second-year student at the Australian National University studying a double degree of Arts and Design, and residing at Burgmann College.

Michael Brand

As director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales Dr Michael Brand @michaelbrandsydney is leading the largest expansion in the art museum’s history – the Sydney Modern Project – due to open in 2022. Michael is a global cultural leader and art scholar and his work spans art museums and academia as well as government, philanthropic and community sectors.

Celia Roberts

Celia Roberts is a Professor in the School of Sociology. She is currently co-writing a book on reproduction in climate crisis. Twitter:@CeliaMRoberts

Evana Ho

Communications Coordinator in the ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences. She previously produced the podcast Future Self, featuring students interviewing people doing their dream job, and produced and hosted the podcasts This Academic's Life and Better Things.

Angela Woollacott

Angela Woollacott is the Manning Clark Professor of History at the Australian National University, and is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and the Royal Historical Society.

Fiona Jenkins

Fiona Jenkins is the Convenor of the ANU Gender Institute and an Associate Professor in the School of Philosophy. Her recent research on “Gendered Excellence in the Social Sciences” takes up themes close to those Virginia Woolf broaches in ‘A Room of One’s Own’, looking at the causes of women’s persistent under-representation in some disciplinary areas and the impacts this has on knowledge.

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“Of the two - the vote and the money - the money, I own, seemed infinitely the more important.”

Our Readers:

Brian Schmidt

Professor Brian Schmidt is a world-renowned astrophysicist, 2011 Nobel Prize (Physics) recipient and the 12th Vice-Chancellor of The Australian National University. Brian was born in Missoula, Montana, received his PhD in Astronomy from Harvard University, and owns a winery in NSW, Australia.

Jessica Urwin

Jessica Urwin is a PhD candidate in the school of history researching a history of nuclear colonialism in South Australia. Twitter: @JessUrwin95

Margaret Jolly

Margaret Jolly, AM FASSA, Emerita Professor at the Australian National University is a transdisciplinary scholar of gender and Pacific studies, researching and teaching on gender and sexuality in colonial and contemporary Oceania. She is presently focused on gender and the climate crisis and the challenges of decolonial, intersectional feminisms.

Hilary Charlesworth

Hilary Charlesworth is a Melbourne Laureate Professor and Harrison Moore professor at Melbourne Law School and a Distinguished Professor in RegNet at the ANU. She is also the first Australian woman to be elected to the UN International Court of Justice.

Kim Rubenstein

Kim Rubenstein is a Professor at the University of Canberra. She is the co-director of the 50/50 by 2030 Foundation at the University of Canberra, and has announced that she intends to be an independent candidate to nominate for representing Canberra or the ACT at the next federal election.

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