The GATE Grind

GATE 2024 XH2 (English) – Question 55

Critical Theories and Intellectual Traditions · Theoretical Paradigms: Structuralism, Marxism, feminism, existentialism, poststructuralism, modernism, postmodernism, new historicism, postcolonialism, posthumanism · 2 marks · Multiple select

Virginia Woolf wrote in “Professions for Women”:
“You have won rooms of your own in the house hitherto exclusively owned by men. You are able, though not without great labour and effort, to pay the rent. You are earning your five hundred pounds a year. But this freedom is only a beginning; the room is your own, but it is still bare. It has to be furnished; it has to be decorated; it has to be shared. How are you going to furnish it, how are you going to decorate it? With whom are you going to share it, and upon what terms?”
Based on this passage, which of the following inferences is/are correct?

  1. Women may have attained rooms of their own but they still have a long way to go.
  2. The ‘room’ women now own is a sign of minimal economic independence.
  3. Woolf insists that women live only with other women in order to maintain their independence.
  4. The freedom that women now enjoy was attained after centuries of struggle.

Practise this question in The GATE Grind →

Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: (A) Women may have attained rooms of their own but they still have a long way to go.; (B) The ‘room’ women now own is a sign of minimal economic independence.

Explanation

Woolf says that the freedom is “only a beginning” and the room is still bare (A), and the rent paid from a modest income shows a minimal independence (B). She asks with whom the room is to be shared, and does not say “only women”. The passage does not speak of centuries of struggle.