Woolf & Stetson on Women's Rights

On the whole, I do support Woolf’s idea that women are in need of “private, secure, comfortable spaces to write from.”  However, I believe that this idea should be extended to something larger.  I believe Woolf was trying to communicate a bigger message, which is that women should have the same common rights as men.  Throughout Virginia Woolf’s writing, in particular A Room of One’s Own, a reader can understand her advocacy for women’s rights in the early 20^th century. 

In Charlotte Perkins Stetson’s The Yellow Wallpaper, we can see Woolf’s thesis being supported throughout the text.  Stetson describes the story of a woman that ultimately depicts the oppression women faced during this time period.  Considering Woolf’s thesis, and the extension of this thesis that I described in the first paragraph, Stetson’s depiction of the oppressed women in the 19^th century can be seen as supportive towards Woolf’s advocacies. 

To more accurately support this argument, I have pulled a short line from a scene towards the end of The Yellow Wallpaper that describes the scene in which the narrator is feeling oppression from Jennie and John:

“He asked me all sorts of questions, too, and pretended to be very loving and kind.

As if I couldn’t see right through him!” (pg. 655)

These two lines, and the greater setting of this scene, accurately describes the oppression women faced during the 19^th century in that the reader can witness the female narrator express inferiority being provoked onto her.  While treatment of the narrator throughout this scene and the entire short story could be defended by the fact that she is “sick,” these thoughts by the female narrator accurately recount an oppressed situation for females in this time, regardless of whether or not she is sick. 

To again reiterate the extension of this thesis, all people—no matter their age, ethnicity, writing experience, etc.—should have the same common rights as one another.  Today, I would argue that Woolf’s thesis, and my extension of this thesis, is present throughout most American and European cultures.