Professions for Women

 Professions for Women: An Article Analysis Virginia 

Woolf’s speech “Professions for Women” is a speech intended for The Women’s Service League in 1931. Having Virginia Woolf as the speaker and writer of the piece already says a lot about the content, not to mention the title of the speech itself. She was supposed to talk about her professional experiences as a novelist. Professional women at the time of the speech were clearly few in number, and most women were still in an extremely patriarchal society. Analysis of Professions for Women Instead of the typical speech about professional life, Woolf preferred to speak about a personal dilemma of being a professional woman instead. In her speech, she discusses two predicaments in her life as a writer. The first one is the trouble of a recurring fictitious character of the Angel in the House. She describes the character to be “intensely sympathetic. She was immensely charming. She was utterly unselfish. She excelled in the difficult arts of family life. She sacrificed herself daily” (Woolf 301). Clear in her descriptions, she is not fond of the Angel in the House which is why she keeps on terminating her. The angel would always lurk behind her every time she writes. She keeps on reminding her that Woolf is a young woman writing reviews about works of men, so she ought to be tender, gentle, and always flattering in her words. The Angel in the House apparently symbolizes the recurring problems of being a woman. As a woman, a domestic obligation is still attached to them no matter how many feminist movements are formed. The next predicament that Woolf mentions in her speech is her problem with her body. “But second, telling the truth about my own experiences as a body, I do not think I solved. I doubt that any woman has solved it yet. The obstacles against her are still immensely powerful—and yet they are very difficult to define” (Woolf 303). In this section of her speech, she is referring to the sexual aspect of being a woman of how it could impede the minds of women writers. Apparently, Woolf has become more detailed and literal in her reference to women’s struggles. It is noticeable that Woolf did not intend to deliver a typical speech about how she became a professional writer as a woman. Instead, she resorted to revealing personal struggles that characterize a woman’s encounters although she is already a professional. She stressed the fact that being a professional woman writer is completely different from being a professional man in any field. She wished to inculcate this idea to the women in The Women’s Service League not to discourage them but to help them face the continuous battle of the sexes in terms of professions. Conclusion Evidently, Woolf has become too personal in her speech to The Women’s Service League. She did not give a speech of encouragement to the audience but preferred opening their eyes to the reality of being a woman. Like the Angel in the House, she intended to reveal to the audience that trying to become a professional in a certain field requires great strength to endure the demands of domesticity

 Professions for Women: Rhetorical Analysis 

 Society has perpetuated stereotypes of women, who are told to be subservient to men’s interests and desires, never being given a chance for independent thinking throughout the centuries. As a result, women are discouraged to enter careers and fields that men typically occupy. However, women such as novelist Virginia Woolf are seeking to reverse that trend. In her speech Professions For Women, she argues that women who are entering male-dominated professions should choose what employment they pursue without conforming to society’s pressures. Through language illustrating conflict, metaphor, and parallelism, Woolf inspires a call to action among women to make choices in professions that will define the female sex, and that will continue the struggle for women’s employment. Woolf achieves her purpose through language that suggests an ongoing battle between women and ideas that discourage women’s employment. For instance, while Woolf rhetorically asks what is easier than being an author living a luxurious life, she realizes that “if [she] were going to review books [she] should need to do battle with a certain phantom” (2). Woolf’s emphasis on the word “battle” suggests that if women are going to enter a profession, they will have to challenge ideas that oppose a female employee. It further cautions that women who enter professions cannot simply let ideas that suppress female empowerment persist, and that they must actively resist those ideas to encourage other women to become a professional. Woolf also highlights the struggle women will face by explaining that despite the lack of external, physical obstacles, women still have “many ghosts to fight, many prejudices to overcome” (5). The encouraging yet haunting tones of the words “fight” and “overcome” in conjunction with the “ghosts” and “prejudices” illustrate the internal conflict between women who have entered professions and their mental barriers to society’s stigma against women entering professions and forcing them to be submissive and selfless and ultimately conquer them. Woolf further urges these female professionals to face these overwhelming obstacles and overcome them, which would allow the women to excel in their disciplines and define who women truly are through their achievements and accomplishments. Another way she accomplishes her goal of inspiring women in professions to continue the struggle is through metaphor. While Woolf describes her success as an employed woman in literature, she cites one cause: “the road [that] was cut many years ago by … many famous women, and much more unknown and forgotten, [who] have been before [Woolf], making the path smooth, and regulating [her] steps” (2). The image of Woolf on the path to success guided by women of the past suggests that entering a profession propagates the efforts of generations of women who have contributed to not only the profession but also have inspired Woolf to pursue these professions and that if these women succeed in their professions, there will be more women who will be encouraged to join previously male-dominated professions. She further employs metaphor when she explains that even though women “have won rooms of [their] own in the house hitherto exclusively owned by men” (6), they have only just begun their struggle in the professions. The women’s rooms, representing their presence in the male-dominated professions, highlight that women have taken their first steps in entering the professions, but the struggle for women in professions is far from over. When comparing the size of a room to that of an entire house made up of many rooms dominated by men, Woolf demonstrates that women have to continue inspiring women to secure more rooms in these professions. Furthermore, Woolf incorporates parallelism to emphasize that even though women may have succeeded in entering professions, they still need to make their mark in their professions. Although Woolf does not know the answers to questions regarding who women are, she commends the women “who are in process of showing [them] by [they are] experiments what a woman is, who are in process of providing [them], by [their] failures and successes, with that extremely important piece of information” (4). Woolf emphasis on the phrase “who are in process of” indicates that the work of these women in professions is a continuing “process” that will always supplement women’s basic identity with more information. Through these advances in their professions, through these answers to previously unanswered questions, women will transform the selfless, subjugated image of women during their time into that of empowered females with independent thought and self-identity. In addition, when Woolf brings up the questions that she thinks are the most significant for women, she remarks that “for the first time in history [women] can ask [questions]; for the first time [women] can decide for [themselves] what the answers should be” (6). The “questions” and “answers” that women make in these professions complement each other, fulfilling a cycle of how women define themselves. These professional women not only should continue asking questions regarding who women are and what they are capable of, but also demonstrate their capabilities through their arduous efforts and diligence to provide the answers to those questions. In summary, Woolf’s diction highlighting women’s struggle, metaphor, and parallelism contribute to her purpose of encouraging women to enter professions and make decisions that will characterize who women are. In a world where people still fight for women’s equality in many professions, from teaching to science fields, where women often still do not get equal treatment compared to their male counterparts in terms of pay and discrimination, the struggle for women in professions is a continuous process. Indeed, women will have to push through these obstacles so that they can progress further in exemplifying women’s capabilities.

 By kguo2019 www.teenic.com users