Three Guineas

In Part 2, Woolf discusses what she will do with the second of her titular guineas. She turns her attention to “the professions” (39). Those clever individuals "who are earning their livings in the professions" (39), Woolf wonders, would surely see the inherent horror of war and would not need much convincing to help prevent it. But there is still “some hesitation, some doubt” (39).

Woolf turns to another letter, also asking for money. The sender is “another honorary treasurer” from “a society to help the daughters of educated men to obtain employment in the professions” (40). Firstly, Woolf examines why the letter writer is asking for money. She drafts a hypothetical response asking for answers. Men, she writes, do not believe that this woman is as poor as she claims, and Woolf provides examples of advice and criticisms offered by men. She quotes famous men who lament women’s lack of effort to “resist the practical obliteration of their freedom by Fascists or Nazis” (42), even after winning the right to vote. She ends the hypothetical letter by telling the recipient to burn down her building and learn to cook.

Woolf then discusses two facts she believes to be pertinent to this issue.