Three Guineas is written as a series of letters in which Virginia Woolf explores the complex interconnections between gender, war, and intellectual freedom. The book is structured around three requests for a donation of a guinea: one for a women's college building fund, another for a society promoting professional women, and a third to help prevent war and protect culture and intellectual liberty.
Woolf's response is a profound meditation on the state of women's education and employment in the 1930s, questioning why education for women is so poorly supported and why women are discouraged from professional careers. She challenges the liberal orthodoxies of her time and presents discomforting arguments about the relationship between gender and violence.
This work is a pacifist-feminist essay whose message continues to resonate in contemporary global issues, making it a classic in feminist literature.