The obstacles that hinder the path of a women writer
"Professions for Women" is an essay written on the speech delivered by Virginia Woolf to a branch of the national society for women's service on 21 January 1931. This is basically presented as a paper on women's rights on Virginia Woolf's own professional experiences. She feels that women in every profession face many difficulties and basically those women who are attached to the writing profession face great obstacles on their path. Many of the hindrances prevent women from becoming successful writers. While writing the review Woolf thinks that if she review books she has to fight with a certain phantom. She calls this Phantom "Angel in the house" which is a symbol of the perfection of women that the so-called cultured society expects. In the late Victorian and early twentieth-century women had no economic independence. They were not free to speak, write, and think in the way they wanted.
They were impeded by man-made standards of womanly conduct. There are two major obstacles that hinder the path of a women writer as well as women of any profession are the conventional notion of the role of a woman and the restrictions regarding their own sexual life. Women were isolated for so long that men think a woman is only a wife, cook, and maid. Women writers were dominated by society. Women were not expected to write about Novels, reviews, and criticism of society. Being a doctor, lawyer or writer was only in their dreams. Women were stuck against a rock and wall looking for a way to explore all the opportunities in the world. Women were forced to be submerged under silence. Men could do whatever they wanted while women were deprived of this opportunity. The condition of women was such that they only exist to do slavery of men. Even women were restricted to choosing life partners on their own. The so-called developed society did not allow women to express their creativity. This discrimination between men and women in society was the main obstacle that hinders the path of a women writer.
As a female writer Woolf kills the phantom she calls “Angel in the house” which represents her protests and bravery against the male-dominated society.