5 remarkable women in the history of Romania

Ana Ipătescu

Ana was born in Bucharest, in the Olarilor neighborhood, in the family of a merchant, Atanasie Ghiulerasă, from the incipient bourgeoisie at the end of the Phanariot period.

In 1828 she married Ivancea Dimitrie, from whom she separated in 1831, the year in which her father died. Due to the situation he was in, he regained his interest in Nicolae Ipătescu.

The heroine of the Pasoptist revolution soon became, after her remarkable gesture of courage, by which she saved the revolutionary government from dissolution, the subject of speculations that filled the press of the time, speculations regarding both her morals and personality and the motivation of her heroic gesture. The events, in short: in June 1848, a group of Romanian revolutionaries read, on a plain near Bucharest, the famous Proclamation from Islaz, calling on the people to fight against the outdated social and political order in Wallachia and urging its change. With popular support, the revolutionaries took power and formed a provisional government. After this first victory, the misunderstandings between the new rulers begin. The great boyars take advantage of the situation and organize a counterattack: with the help of some military troops, the revolutionary government is arrested! Dazed by the rapid upheaval of the situation and the intervention of the army, the popular masses, lacking sufficient armament, felt defeated and practically resigned… And, with that, they would have ended the Romanian revolution of 1848, after only a few days, if it weren’t for a woman who, with a single action full of progress, put things back on the progressive path they had set out on.

Ecaterina Teodoroiu

Ecaterina Teodoroiu (born Cătălina Vasile Toderoiu on January 14, 1894, Vădeni, today a neighborhood in the municipality of Târgu-Jiu, Romania – d. August 22, 1917 near Panciu, Romania) was a scout and participant in the First World War, where she died in the end of the battle of Marasesti fighting at the head of an infantry platoon of the Romanian Army.

Coming from a modest family from Oltenia, Ecaterina went to Bucharest to become a teacher, and there she contributed to the establishment of the first scout organizations in the country. After Romania’s entry into the First World War, she worked as a nurse on the front in her native region. Out of a desire to avenge all four of her brothers who had died in battle, Ecaterina asked to be transferred to a combat unit. She was taken prisoner, escaped and was wounded twice. In the hospital, she was decorated by the royal house and promoted to the rank of lieutenant. From this position he participated in the battle of Marasesti, where he died commanding an infantry platoon.

Celebrated as a national heroine after the end of the war, her image was initially marginalized and then distorted by the communist regime.

Ştefania Mărăcineanu

Ștefania Mărăcineanu was an internationally renowned Romanian chemist and physicist. She formulated theories about radioactivity, artificial radioactivity and the process of artificially triggering rain. Ștefania Mărăcineanu studied the connection between radioactivity and rain, and, later, the relationship between earthquakes and precipitation. She launched others controversial hypotheses, such as the influence of sunlight or even rainwater on radioactivity. The hypothesis that sunlight could induce artificial radioactivity, has long been debated in the scientific community of the time, both in France and in Germany and England. It seems that the dispute was quite heated and contributed to the isolation of Stefania Mărăcineanu by the group from the Curie laboratory.

Aurora Gruescu

Aurora Gruescu was the first woman forestry engineer in the world and the first Romanian to enter the Guinness Book. He practiced the profession from 1938 to 1973, when he retired. He linked his name to the first national afforestation plan, fixed at an area of ​​100,000 hectares, led the avio-chemical pest control works in the infested forests around the Capital, made confirmed innovations related to the works of mechanization in pest control, publishing several articles in this regard in „Revista Pădurilor”

In 1933 she was admitted to the Faculty of Forestry, which at that time belonged to the Polytechnic. She was the only female student in that faculty, arousing both admiration and controversy, especially since those around her urged her to give up. In a time of misogynistic prejudice, such a career was considered typically masculine. It had the same disregard during the communist regime, when it was expropriated, being considered an enemy of the people.

However, she enjoyed the appreciation of many women, for whom she was an example, but also from some international organizations.

Queen Marie of Romania

She was also a crown princess and the second queen of Romania, as the wife of the Crown Prince who later became King Ferdinand I of Romania. She was the mother of King Charles II. Mary, born Marie Alexandra Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, was a Grand Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, the niece of Queen Victoria of Great Britain.

His parents were Alfred Ernest Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke of Edinburgh, and his mother, Maria Alexandrovna Romanova, Grand Duchess of Russia, the only daughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia.

Mary spent her childhood and adolescence at Eastwell Park, the family’s home in Kent County.

She married on December 29, 1892, Ferdinand I, the Crown Prince of the Romanian throne, trying from the beginning and succeeding in integrating into the nation that had adopted her as Princess and, since 1914, as Queen.

He constantly aimed at strengthening the ties between Romania and Great Britain, proving real diplomatic qualities in supporting and defending Romania’s interests. He opposed Romania’s entry into the First World War on the part of the Central Powers and supported the alliance with the Entente, in order for it to support the achievement of the Romanian national state.

During the war, she accompanied her husband in refuge in Moldova, working as a sister of charity in military hospitals, an activity that made her popularly called „mother of the wounded”.

During the Paris Peace Conference (1919), but also after the coronation, together with King Ferdinand, as sovereigns of Greater Romania (Alba Iulia, October 15, 1922) he participated in a diplomatic campaign for the international recognition of the reunited Romanian state, having formal or informal meetings with the British sovereign, the President of the United States of America, Woodrow Wilson, the Prime Minister of France or the leading representatives of the European media.

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