According to Virginia Woolf, what did an unaccompanied woman need to be admitted to the library at Oxbridge?

According to Virginia Woolf's (1882-1941) essay 'A Room of One's Own' published in 1929, "ladies are only admitted to the library if accompanied by a Fellow of the College or furnished with a letter of introduction." The book is based on lectures given by Woolf at a couple of British colleges about social injustices and a woman's lack of free expression.

In the first section, Woolf described her potentially fictionalised experience of visiting the fortress-like library at Oxbridge. She wished to view the manuscript of an essay by Charles Lamb (1775-1834), who wrote about life at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, collectively known as Oxbridge, but is told she cannot enter without a letter. Angry at the injustice, Woolf recorded her feelings of exclusion from the male-dominated world.

At the time of writing, women in Britain had earned the right to vote, yet many areas of life still remained forbidden to them. Woolf compared the meals at male universities and women colleges, noting that the men received a much grander dining experience than the poor quality food the women were forced to eat. She also explained that the founding of the women's college involved a great deal of effort to raise sufficient financial and political support. Yet, the men were accepted into age-old establishments on account of their gender.

Ultimately, Woolf surmised that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction" or any genre for that matter.