On Woolf's insight into sexism.

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"Without self-confidence we are as babies in the cradle. And how can we generate this imponderable quality, which is yet so invaluable, most quickly? By thinking that other people are inferior to oneself. By feeling that one has some innate superiority--it may be wealth or rank, a straight nose, or the portrait of a grandfather by Romney--for there is no end to the pathetic devices of the human imagination --over other people. Hence the enormous importance to a patriarch who has to conquer, who has to rule, of feeling that great numbers of people, half the human race indeed, are by nature inferior to himself. It must be indeed one of the chief sources of his power."
-Virginia Woof, Except taken from "A Room of One's Own".

 "A Room of One's Own" is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. It is a piece of feminist text that reveals amazing insights into Woolf's thinking processes. That she was able to formulate this conclusion in her mind in that time period speaks multitudes about her independent and creative mind.

For centuries, patriarchy has been successful in imprinting minds with the same old spiel on how women are naturally inferior when compared to men. To be able to overlook and overcome this overbearing, stifling  school of thought and to simultaneously look at the argument objectively is an admirable achievement. Women have always been told, since the day they are born, that they have inferior minds and inferior bodies  and that they cannot live without men. The negative overshoot of such vehement, deep psychological conditioning is that women themselves tend to start doubting their abilities. I admit to having done that despite having overwhelming evidence against it. In fact, multiple studies in multiple industries show that women often judge their own performance as worse than it actually is, while men judge their own performance as better than it actually is. We start questioning ourselves, our abilities, the integrity of our minds, our reasons for existence and even the value of our lives in this world. There has been countless cases where women driven by such conditioning, end up taking their own lives. However, this work of art shows that Woolf, despite being subject to such sexism and anger herself, was able to come to a reasonable conclusion on why sexism exists. It is indeed a monumental and pivotal moment in feminist history. 

When I think of all those women who have been forced into slavery, denied education, mentally tortured, sexually harassed, physically harmed, raped, mauled or reprimanded for having been born as a woman in any way, I feel extremely saddened. Every woman, girl, boy and man is human and should not be denied basic human rights. To hit any human being who does not have the strength to hit back should be a sacrilege. To treat any human unjustly should be unforgivable. To be denied the basic right to a life should be condemnable to the extent that the perpetrator should go punished. Despite the years of progress that the women's movement have made through the years, women all over the world are still denied their basic rights over and over again.