Intersecting Oppressions, Diverging Forms: A Comparative Reading of Woolf and Walker on Women's Resistance and Economic Agency

Asal Ali Hyasat and Hanan Ibrahim

Gender, Work and Organization, 2026, vol. 33, issue 1, 59-66

Abstract: This study presents a comparative analysis of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own (AROO) (1929) and Alice Walker's The Color Purple (TCP) (1983), examining how each author, through distinct genres, portrays women's struggles to transform oppressive realities. Woolf's extended study stresses White women's need to be intellectually and financially independent within patriarchal systems, whereas Walker's epistolary novel demonstrates how Black women cannot address gender oppression in isolation from racial, social, and economic issues. Informed by their respective cultural and political backgrounds, both texts reveal diverse yet overlapping manifestations of patriarchal domination and multifaceted forms of female agency. By emphasizing political, social, and cultural obstacles to women's independence, this study offers important insights into the practices that can either improve or hinder women's empowerment. Thematic convergences and divergences in both texts illuminate how literary representations of women's multifaceted oppressive experiences contribute to broader discourses on women's autonomy and contextual priorities. The comparative approach is instrumental in developing strategic frames for gender equity in local and global organizations, facilitating structural reformations, intersectional policies, and more inclusive practices that empower all women.

Date: 2026
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