ABSTRACT
Virginia W oolfs plea for a history of women evokes a number o f immediate responses. First, though Jane Austen had made the point before her, she appreciated that existing history was lopsided; second, her appeal was so modest, requesting no more than ‘a supplement to history’ ; third, she believed that the enterprise must appear discreet so as not to offend and that the end product could be slipped into the mainstream o f history unnoticed perhaps by any except those who wanted it to be there. Further, Virginia W oolfs questions related entirely to social matters on marriage and housekeeping and were of an innocuous variety which might spare even the most pronounced anti-feminist offence. N o question here o f probing why women were for so long denied entry to the professions or refused the suffrage. She was obviously a little disappointed that the early alumnae o f the women’s colleges had not done more in the way o f the historic reconstruction o f their past.
