I first read this in college in the 80's, and it was transformational. Rereading many years later I remain impressed, but I will say it felt a good deal more current when I read it last. Everything here was groundbreaking when first published, even for women who had read Mary Wollstonecraft and other early feminists. Additionally, Woolf's keen eye, brilliant prose, and power of persuasion were and remain humbling. It is sad that her words still seemed very fresh in the 1080's and gratifying they are a bit less so now. In the past 30+ years society has changed more than we (or at least I) realize. Books like this one really bring that home. Still, even with women in a very different place than they were with respect to access to education and economically sustaining work much of it still resonates. Economic disparities between men and women are still profound, and they still limit women's opportunities to pursue things that are intellectually and spiritually satisfying.

As the economic divide has narrowed, the inequality looks a bit different. Now the issue is less that one can write better with a roof and a full belly and more that life for most people living in two adult households (particularly with children) now requires two incomes and that those in one adult homes with children often just survive on one income. That means everyone needs to have cash-paying employment. Social norms still dictate that women with male partners also work the full time job of keeping house and raising children in addition to work outside the home, and of course single parents still do all of that. Women are exhausted. The NYT just did an excellent series about this focusing on how the pandemic made this unsustainable existence even worse. I read just yesterday that suicides in Japan among women in their childbearing years have skyrocketed in the pandemic year. No woman I know under the age of 50 has the time to meditate upon any urns. That is true even though my friends are largely people with professional and/or graduate degrees and have access to enough capital to meet their needs and have some help in the house on occasion. This means life is easier than it is for most women, and still we are maxed out. So Woolf's full belly part of the equation is showing improvement (though certainly many people are going hungry, at least here in the states, and the majority of the hungry are women and children.) But the full belly is only what was needed to get a room of one's own -- the purpose of that room was uninterrupted time to create, and most women have not come any closer to that meeting that need than they were 100 years ago.

Of course economic autonomy is not the only subject addressed here. The fact that history is viewed through a white European male lens, a view of the past that inhibits women's present and future is also front and center. The truth of that observation is sadly little impacted by time and social change, though there has been some movement, particularly in the past 10 years or so. That fact also helps to explain why progress has been so maddeningly slow, and to illuminate the strength and talent of those women who were able to make any impact before recent change.

All in all, Woolf's speech/manifesto stands the test of time. My hope is that for my grandchildren it will be a merely historical document. For now it a reminder of how we have moved forward and more importantly a kick in the ass to remind us that the core problem remains very much a part of most women's present. We all (feminists wherever we may fall on the gender spectrum) need to get out of the proverbial frog-being-boiled state of acceptance and into the real work of making sure that progress continues. Nearly 100 years and we still have a lot to do and Woolf's words inspire a lot of doing.

Rambly, disorganized thoughts below. I probably will never be able to write a succinct, organized review of this without it being the length of a master's thesis.

I've never annotated and picked apart a non-school read this much. Maybe that was a bad thing, as I think I focused too literally on some sections where sarcasm/satire was strong. This literal reading made me disagree with many of Woolf's suggestions about writing after Chapter 3, but still agree with her overall message. Although what that overall message was I'm still uncertain about after that last line. "...[T]hat so to work, even in poverty and obscurity, is worthwhile." This is her conclusion, after 114 pages saying that women can really only truly become writers once they have their own space and receive some sort of reliable income. Sarcasm or not, the underlying argument is class-based--women who are middle-class or higher will have more opportunities to get this room and money of their own than lower-class women. She also sort of contradicts herself again in the final chapter by saying "So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters" after heavily alluding in prior chapters that writing is near impossible for women and when they do write, it should really only be novels because all other forms have been set in stone by men. Woolf also takes strong issue with style changes--of COURSE someone writing in the 1890s/early 1900s is going to have different sentence structure and story organization than Jane Austen's 1700s style.

Needless to say, I got very strong mixed messages throughout the second half of this book. The first half, particularly Chapter 2 (many variations of "YAAAASS" & "SLAAAAY" appeared in my marginal notes here), was much more enjoyable. This may have been because these were the chapters I had read for a literature class last year, but they were also the parts where I agreed with her points the most, without finding excessive contradictions.

Even though I had issues with her argument as the book wore on, I still highly enjoyed reading it and seeing her point of view on the issue. I honestly wouldn't recommend it as much to writers as I would to women's/gender studies scholars and literature scholars who are interested in how gender and class affect creativity and writing.

Five stars for cultural significance. Especially impactful reading it in 2020, nearly to the century mark Woolf frequently references.

Yazmak, hem de içinden geçenleri başkası neder diye törpüleme hissi duymadan ana ve sonraki zamanlara miras altın öğütler olarak bırakmak... Woolf'un kalemini bu derece değerli yapan bu sanırım.

Kadın/Erkek ayrımı olmaksızın hepimizin kendine ait bir odası olması gereken zamanlardayız. O odada düşünmeli, sorgulamalı ve en önemlisi yazmalıyız.

Her sene 1 kere okunacaklar diye bir listem var. Kendine Ait Bir Oda'yı da o listeye ekledim...

Eserin kırmızı kedi edisyonunu 26 Mart 2021'de okumuş ve şu incelemeyi yazmışım:

Yazmak, hem de içinden geçenleri başkası neder diye törpüleme hissi duymadan ana ve sonraki zamanlara miras altın öğütler olarak bırakmak... Woolf'un kalemini bu derece değerli yapan bu sanırım.

Kadın/Erkek ayrımı olmaksızın hepimizin kendine ait bir odası olması gereken zamanlardayız. O odada düşünmeli, sorgulamalı ve en önemlisi yazmalıyız.

Her sene 1 kere okunacaklar diye bir listem var. Kendine Ait Bir Oda'yı da o listeye ekledim...

Düşüncem hala aynı... Bu okumamda dönem yazarları ve kadının yaşamı adına yaptığı tespitler dikkatimi çekti. Salonda, ev rutinlerinin arasında "yazabilen" kadınlara bir daha hayranlık duydum.

Yapacağım tek bir ek var: Yazmak için en önemli ihtiyaç olan kağıdı bile istedikleri kadar alamamaları, eğitimleri, yokluk, bizim bugün sahip olduğumuz için farkında bile olmadığımız hakların o zamanlardaki yoksunluğunun getirdiklerini düşünmek adına çok önemli bir eser.