Les féministes et l’idéal national roumain de 1918

Abstract

The National Orthodox Society of Romanian Women was a national cultural association, which functioned between 1910 and 1948. Its members managed to found kindergartens, schools, libraries, and workshops in many villages and towns in Romania. During the Great War, the feminist Women, both those who remained in the occupied territory of Romania (Alexandrina Gr. Cantacuzino, Zoe Gr. Râmniceanu, Zoe Rosetti-Bălănescu), and those who took refuge to Moldova (Maria Baiulescu, Elena Perticari, Maria Glogoveanu, Margot Oromolu et al.), organized and maintained hospitals for the wounded soldiers, shelters and canteens for orphans. They also corresponded with war prisoners from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany. The article presents in particular three exemplary personalities among these exceptional women: Elena Alistar from Bessarabia, Maria Baiulescu from Transylvania and Alexandrina Gr. Cantacuzino from Wallachia, who, as leaders of feminist associations, promoted the unionist ideals of the Romanians around 1918 through numerous initiatives and actions: the foundation and unification of feminist associations, the organisation of conferences, the publication of memoirs and press articles with unionist content.

Keywords

• Romanian feminist women
• associations
• war refugees
• Great Union
• national ideal