During Shakespeare's time, women's opportunities were limited to domestic roles, with limited access to education or the arts. The theatrical scene was dominated by men, and women like Shakespeare's imagined sister faced societal barriers. It wasn't until centuries later that women's rights advocates like Judith Sargent Murray began pushing for equal educational opportunities.
Based on the excerpt from "Shakespeare's sister," we can infer that during Shakespeare's time, the opportunities for women were highly restricted. In the Elizabethan era, societal expectations confined women primarily to motherly and household duties. The notion of equality in terms of education or professional aspirations was virtually non-existent for women. Virginia Woolf's extended essay highlights a stark reality: had women been given the same educational opportunities, funding, and personal space as men, many could have achieved comparable literary greatness.
Judith Shakespeare moves to London, mirroring the migration of many aspiring male actors and writers of that time. Unlike her brother or male contemporaries such as Christopher Marlowe, the societal norms would not have allowed a woman such as Judith to thrive in the male-dominated literary and theatrical circles. The London Theater scene, robust and influential, was an exclusive club from which women were largely barred.
It was not until the late 18th century that calls for educational equality became more vocal, as exemplified by Judith Sargent Murray advocating for women's economic independence and educational opportunities. Woolf imagines a world where Shakespeare's sister lives on through the aspirations and potentials of women, suggesting that genius and talent are not exclusive to one gender, but merely suppressed by the lack of opportunity.