EDINBORO UNIVERSITY – In honor of Women’s History Month, four students participated in a  “Women in Literature Student Panel” on March 31 in the Frank G. Pogue Student Center’s Multipurpose Room A.

Discussion focused upon  women authors and characters don’t receiving the recognition that they each deserve.

“Recognizing the importance of women in literature… is an important step in a journey to developing a more dynamic view of the role of women in society,” said Morgan Larchuk, vice president of Sigma Tau Delta at Edinboro University.

Corey Saxton, a sophomore English Literature major, analyzed the characters in Virginia Woolf’s book To the Lighthouse and how they display the concept of the ideal woman.

Saxton said that Woolf’s perception of the “perfect woman is… so constituted that she never had a mind or a wish of her own, but preferred to sympathize always with the mind and wishes of others.”

Yet, this could create a problem for women writers who want to publish their own work. According to Saxton, Woolf states: “this perception of women… stands in the way of any female author wishing to express her true thoughts on morals, sexuality and human relations.”

Next, Edward Jackson, a junior secondary education and English major, introduced and spoke about Judy Blume and how her writing impacted literature.