Anonymous?

Woolf comments on an argument that a Bishop has brought up to her: that no woman during Shakespeare's time would have been able to write as well as he did. And Woolf agrees with this statement that any woman during Shakespeare's time would not have been able to, they simply did not have the ability to. They were oppressed; they were forced to marry young and could not receive the same education as a male. And even if they had possessed his ability, as Woolf imagines in her story of Shakespeare's sister, they would not have been able to achieve the same success. And Woolf suggests that even if a woman had been able to write something, she would not have signed her name on it. This totally reminded me of the movie "Casanova." Yes, Heath Ledger is wonderful to watch in it, but it does relate. Heath's love interest (Sienna Miller of course) is a feminist writer who publishes her works under a man's name. She is afraid to publish the work under her own name because it is so radical. Ironically, the "Womanizer" (because pop-culture references are fun) falls in love with the feminist. But back to women and writing-- even in this film which is set to take place in another country (Italy and not England) in another time (1750s and not 16th century), it is evident that women could not be well-known writers. They were being held back by the patriarchal ideals that were set in place. It's very sad to think of just how much struggle women have gone through over the years, and they are still not the equal to men in many ways. Women were not even given the right to vote until 1920 in the US (although as a fun fact women in my homestate of NJ could vote from 1776-1807 since the only requirement was to own land to vote so a widow could vote and some ballots included the term "she"), demonstrating that truly were inferior to all men when black men were given the right to vote before them. Women were not given the opportunity to work to their mind's potential and it is depressing to know that they are still not given the same opportunity as men.