Chapter 6 of “A Room of One’s Own” begins with Woolf observing a man and woman entering a cab together. Already, we can see the smallest things that Woolf utilizes to express her themes. From this small action of entering a taxi, Woolf conveys the soothing it brings upon her soul. A man and a woman, together, conveys a sense of unity and harmony that ultimately soothes Woolf. She knows for for gender equality in literature, something similar to the man and woman entering the taxi together must happen, but on a larger scale.

This sight leads into the narrator speaking on how one sex cannot exist without the other. For ultimate harmony, men should be accepted as are and women should be accepted as are. There isn’t room for the many gender roles society creates. Men and women should be able to live in peace and write and feel freely, without typical “manliness” or “too feminine” judgements.

Men and women both have fears, especially when it comes to writing. If they could work together, writing fiction freely could be in reach. The narrator argues that fiction is suffering because of the constant struggle of gender consciousness. Whether the gender is fearing inferiority or a loss of superiority, with these fears present, how can either gender reach their full writing potential? The gender consciousness hinders both sexes greatly. One example of this is when the narrator opens up Italian literature. The work was written during Fascist times, and has a masculine undertone to it. She expresses it as “too masculine” and states that the anxiety it gives off comes from inability for men and women to compose literature at peace, especially during a fascist time period. Woolf then expresses that gender superiority and inferiority don’t exist too significantly. The real value is subjective and Woolf then proposes her readers decide a work’s worth on their own.