Women's Freedom of Expression

In her speech, "Professions for Women," Virginia Woolf outlines from her perspective as a writer how the legacy of female submissiveness hampered her work when she was beginning to write for a newspaper. For instance, when Woolf was first reviewing books written by male authors, she felt tempted by the past zeitgeist of passive women to "be tender; flatter; deceive" (Woolf 235). Woolf describes the force compelling her to use softer, less direct language as the Angel in the House. She imagines that this spirit was created by years of women working as the selfless, caring, and pure housewives of the nineteenth century (234). Woolf disdains how the Angel inhibited h

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op and employ her physical and mental faculties. She chooses an occupation that is suited to her wishes, inclinations and abilities..." (Bebel 503). Bebel also includes sexual expression in her utopian worldview. She envisages a world in which women will be able to have a more natural and healthy relationship with men, doing away with "prudery" (503). Whereas Bebel took a revolutionary approach to help women express themselves more equally in the world aside from simply taking care of the family, Simone de Beauvoir takes a philosophical approach to the problem. In "The Second Sex," she writes that women are prohibited from pursuing their interests because they are labeled as inferior by the a priori judgments of men. De Beauvoir gives the example of men relegating blacks to the profession of shoe shining and then thinking that shining shoes is the only job they can perform (De Beauvoir 683). De Beauvoir, like Woolf, finds that women are often thought of as Angels, but de Beauvoir thinks that these Angels are commonly expected to perform public goods. Women, she believes, are expected by men to benefit society with their domestic charms, morality, and child-rearing roles (687). De Beauvoir rejects such ideas, writing that only
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Approximate Word count = 1433
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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