3. Lorainne Sim asks why it is that, within the field of everyday life studies, women writers and voices have such a marginal presence when it comes to the question of the everyday, even while the concept of the everyday is so often tied to femininity. How does Woolf help us begin an answer to this question? Give specific examples.
By taking readers step by step through the myriad of hurdles that interrupt her train of thought, Woolf intimately and tangibly voices her everyday doubts about the way society works, especially for women. As Woolf proves, women writers were physically unable to have a voice due to the social structures of her time period. In regards to the space that Woolf says is necessary, women literally could not become writers without a space to expand their thoughts. At the time, men dominated every space, especially educational ones, prohibiting women from learning/becoming educated.
Everyday life studies are only recently starting to see women in the field because that is how it has been for every field of study. Women were not allowed a proper education for a very long time, so it makes perfect sense that they would not be present in the educational realm; even more to be significant and notable in it. Everyday life is even more of a struggle for women to converse about because their position in society was completely defined for them.
She uses the example of the meals they received at lunchtime to show how money was significantly more sufficient for men rather than women. Compared to the men's college, the women's college was sub-par. Along with the noticeably pitiful meal, the women at the college were not offered wine; furthermore, they did not converse with one another, co-create ideas, or learn from each other.
Everyday life changes, especially for women and minorities, when the rules of society change. It is baffling that we are still fighting for women's rights with our modern wave of feminism; however, we have come a long way from the times of Virginia Woolf.
I love the ways that Woolf conveys her interrupted train of thought say so much about the difficulties and limitations of women’s lives in her time. I have never considered “space to think” as a privilege, but it really is. And there was a point in time where men were the only ones worthy of such luxury. This includes the tradition of men sharing a scotch and a cigar after dinner in a room where women weren’t allowed. This was time for men to gather and converse and share their ideas, a space and time that women did not have access to.
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