Virginia Woolf: Nine decades looking for a room of her own

On October 24, 1929, the British feminist writer Virginia Woolf published the book A Room of One’s Own. 93 years have passed since the essay that gave life to the importance of the sovereignty of women in the arts, knowledge and cultures

Anna Margolliner

When approaching the work of Virginia Woolf, specifically one of her most recognized essays: a room of your ownthe author talks about the importance of having money and a room of her own for the life of a woman who wants to write.

In the prologue that Elena Medel makes to one of the many editions that this book has had since its first publication in 1929, in this case the edition recently launched by Editorial Planeta, she begins her reflection by recalling the complete sentence of Woolf, who says: “a woman must have money and a room of her own to write novels” and not simply “a woman must have a room of her own to write novels” and it is precisely this detail that could seem light and insignificant, which invites us to delve into the role that women have had in the creation of art and, in general, in the development of the cultural sphere as managers, writers, dancers, singers, etc.

Beyond a definition of culture that allows us to understand how human beings have historically related, developed and created different types of communities over time, thanks to their communication, understanding and adaptation skills (in social terms), one could understand culture as a series of characteristics and practices that appear as individuals relate to each other and to the environment in which they operate.

cultural product

Therefore, if you delve into what it has meant for women to be a visible part of cultural products today, with their own voice, it is necessary to go back and recognize those who slowly paved the way, permeating the misogynistic structure that makes up to the society we know. Thus, starting from a patriarchal hegemony that was consolidated in the West, during ancient Greece and Rome, where, in the former, women were destined to occupy the private space: the house, that is, the Oikosthe man in his own right was the one who assumed the work of the State, exercising his role as a citizen and all the benefits that this entailed.

It marked the beginning of a gap in which men had the opportunity to express their thoughts, develop studies and philosophical insights, write, paint and, in short, represent the world around them at their discretion, as they wanted to see it and How were they building it?

Patriarchal Catholicism

The religious paradigms of Catholicism were founded on a patriarchal society in political decline, without forgetting that already in many of the ancient cultures of, in this case, Europe, the role of women was secondary, mediated by the vision of men. It is not necessary to search so much: the Hebrew god is indisputably man and the promised prophet is also, therefore, in this story, Mary acts solely as the chosen one of God to turn the word into flesh. How could a woman be the savior of the human race? Impossible!

From then on, as a state religion, the streets were flooded with churches and the churches with paintings, sculptures and mosaics in which, of course, the official discourse of the sacred scriptures was represented and, little by little, the saints who were consecrating himself at the popular and then official level.

Walking this path, women also had to make themselves heard to profess their faith just as men did in convents and monasteries. They wanted to be able to do what they did: mediate for humanity before God, carry his word and consecrate their lives to his service, which was not well seen by the clergy at first.

However, Francis of Assisi, founder of the First Franciscan Order, helped Clare of Assisi in her interest in founding the Second Franciscan Order, known as the Poor Clares, who, in addition to this, is recognized for being the only woman who explicitly wrote a set of rules for conventual life, as Sor María Victoria Triviño mentions in her article. The original parchment is preserved in the proto-monastery of Santa Clara, in Assisi. Francisco and Clara are founders, for having given rule, of two sister orders that have survived eight centuries.

Privileged women?

Many also came hand in hand with the evangelizing process, to found the respective religious orders in which the women of these lands could redeem their sins and pray for the souls of others. It is in this feminine, mysterious and complex space that feathers appear, such as Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in Mexico, Mother Francisca Josefa del Castillo in New Granada, just as it happened in Europe with Saint Teresa of Jesus in Spain, who within their conventual life they found the perfect space to express themselves as women, they well considered themselves brides of Christ, but human, who came to experience desire, love, lust, fear, passion and dedication for the loved one.

And also curiosity, this led them to vent through their writings thanks to which one can preconceive an idea today about the relationship that women had with their spirituality and the importance that religion had in their lives, mainly in who took the habits.

It could be said that they already had “money and a room of their own” because, of course, not all women in colonial society had the means to enter a convent and even within them, there were hierarchies as they paid the required dowry.

There were, then, certain privileges for some and for others, always marking the differences according to the trades of the mind and those of the body. They had their own room because they had money, women who did not have that privilege simply had to dedicate themselves to other tasks: to work in the fields, for example.

art and process

Although there were also women working in the painting workshops, this was not as usual nor were they recorded as such because the tradition was for men to become teachers and after finishing their apprenticeship, open their own workshop. The women who inhabited these spaces learned the trade thoroughly, in many cases, but could not open their own workshop.

All this to achieve citizenship after the French Revolution and with this “really” start the process of emancipation of women, who, in the Colombian case, were chosen for years as directors of museums, such is the case of the National Museum . It is hardly a historical debt to recognize them as creators of art, beyond simply being represented through it or passive administrators of their exhibition.

In the formation of social fabrics, the cultural bond is one of the deepest in sociological terms. It is through the creation of her own rooms that the woman creates her work. Taking into account the economic needs of many Colombian women, the work of Patricia Ariza as director of the Ministry of Culture is to turn each space into a potential room of its own so that women can grow as artists, eliminating the main obstacle faced by those who want to dedicate his life to art: the lack of money, the gaps between social classes and the privilege of some over others due to their place of origin and enunciation.