Three Guineas

A response to an educated gentleman's request for her opinion on how to prevent the looming conflict that would become the Second World War, Three Guineas imparts Virginia Woolf's perspective on how to avoid another armed conflict. Using a question and answer format, Woolf responds to the gentleman's request by addressing three main questions: how can war be prevented? why is education for women so poorly supported? and why are women discouraged from pursuing professional careers?

Three Guineas was initially written as a novel-essay that would resolve some of the loose ends from A Room of One's Own, however, when it became clear that the structure of the work was problematic, Woolf separated the two elements, producing the novel The Years, and the non-fiction Three Guineas.