Academic Paper from the year 2018 in the subject Gender Studies, grade: 1, University of Malta (English Studies), course: ENG 2063 Theories of Literature 3: Gender and Power, language: English, abstract: This paper analyzes to what extent Woolf’s essay A Room of One’s Own had an impact on second wave feminist writers. In the first part, three of the most important theories of Woolf’s essay are outlined. In the second part, both Simone De Beauvoir’s book The Second Sex as well as Helene Cixous’ essay The Laugh of the Medusa are analyzed by looking at whether Woolf’s three theories are or are not to be found in them. The last part looks at the extent to which these three feminists shared or did not share the same opinions and at how strong Woolf’s influence on them was. The English writer and feminist Virginia Woolf has had a tremendous impact on feminists to come. While other feminists of her time still concentrated on political rights, she was already announcing topics which prefigured some of the central preoccupations of later feminists, questioning the definition of femininity and the role that patriarchy had chosen for women.