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TITLE: The Yearbook of the Women's Meeting in Sibiu for the Years 1911-1912. DESCRIPTION: This document is the yearbook for the 1911-1912 period issued by the Reuniunea Femeilor Române / Reunion of Romanian Women in Sibiu/Hermannstadt/ Nagyszeben. The Reunion was founded in 1880 with the stated goal of creating to promote Romanian women’s education, including both an institute and a boarding school. Reuniunea Femeilor Române/Reunion of Romanian Women in Sibiu opened a Romanian-language, private, elementary school for girls in 1883. (On a similar, older initiative, run by the Brasov/Brasso/Kronstadt Women’s Reunion, see Reuniunea Femeilor Romane Brașov, “Regulament. Pentru internatul de fetite ax reuniunii femeilor române din Brasov [Regulations: For the Girls’ Boarding School of the Reunion of the Romanian Women in Brașov]” (Official Organizational Document, Brașov, României, January 1, 1888), 5747/1888, Fond 1299, Societatea Reuniunea Femeilor Romane din Brasov, ff.1-2, Romania. Arhivele Nationale. Serviciul Judetean al Arhivelor Nationale Brasov. Also of note, the Sibiu Reunion’s elementary school should not be confused with the Civil School for Girls, the secondary school founded by ASTRA Association, which the former functioned in “organic connection” and shared a building; on ASTRA’s school; see also, Scoala Civila de Fete a Asociatiunii Astra, “Condiții de primire în școala civilă de fete a Asociațiunii și în internatul acesteia [Admission Conditions in the Civil Girls’ School of the Association and its Boarding House]” (Official Organizational Document, Sibiu, 1901), 2/1901, Fond Scoala Civila de Fete (Astra) SB-F-00045-2-1901-2, ff. 1-2, Romania. Arhivele Nationale. Directia Judetena a Arhivelor Nationale Sibiu.) In 1905/1906 the Reunion inaugurated a “School for home economy and industry.” In 1915, the Reunion’s wartime charitable activities were commended by the Archduke Franz Salvator of Austria (1866-1939) and the municipal authorities in Sibiu. In 1919, now part of the Kingdom of Romania, the school of the Sibiu Reunion and that of ASTRA merged and changed their status from private (or civil) to public (or state) schools. The same year, Queen Marie of Romania (1875-1938) became patron of the Reunion’s reopened School for Housekeeping and Industry. In general, the Reunion thrived. In 1918, it organized a public meeting, attended by over 500 women, to celebrate the planned union of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania. It also named Eleonora Lemeny as its representative to the official unification negotiations; it mobilized to counter the brutality of the Hungarian Bolsheviks, and it favored the Romanian army’s march against the Budapest Soviet Republic. In the years that followed, the Sibiu Reunion was a significant participant in the Union of Romanian Women, initiated by Maria Baiulescu. ¶ The Yearbook contains minutes of the Reunion’s 1911-1912 meeting, the formal annual report of the organization’s activities, information on the association’s budget and funding, lists of members and the transcript of the speech made by longtime Reunion President, Maria Cosma, during that year’s general assembly. Together, the documents included in the Yearbook show that during 1911-1912 the Reunion reorganized its housekeeping school (founded in 1905), by hiring highly qualified personnel and acquiring a building for this institution. The newly-reorganized school had a section for instruction in “industry” and one for training in housekeeping (“școala de menaj”). The industrial section offered courses aimed to train women both in cottage industry weaving and in factory-type, mechanized weaving. The Reunion recognized the influence of the Fribourg Home Economics School (in Switzerland) on its housekeeping section. The Yearbook mentions hiring one of the Swiss School’s (Romanian) graduates and seeking to select and adapt Fribourg methods to local conditions. Differently from the middle-class clientele of the Reunion’s elementary school, this professional training school was meant to grant scholarships and “open up a career” for poorer girls, all the while contributing to the Romanian national cause through the Romanian-language education of these poorer women, with rural origins. The documents also discuss the Reunion’s desire to begin caring for boys’ education, by providing them with meals and a dedicated boarding school. It should be noted that at the time the multiethnic town of Sibiu/Hermannstadt/Nagyszeben already had a strong tradition in both women’s educational institutions and professional training. Nevertheless, the Reunion’s ambitions for the new school are notable as they responded to several major socio-economic trends in or affecting the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the time, Austria-Hungary was undergoing a boom in the textile industry. Secondly, the household-training movement was a fairly conservative European response to rural-urban migration and changes in women’s work, brought about by proletarization. Thirdly, Transylvanian Romanian nationalists had intensified by the 1910s their middle-class reformist outlook, by more strongly promoting economic organization and productivity as keys to national progress. The Reunion of Romanian Women in Sibiu placed itself and the young women it wished to educate in the middle of these developments, in interesting ways. Reunion members’ participation in the People’s Kitchen (“Bucataria Poporala”) organized by the municipality also receives a mention in the Yearbook. ¶ The Yearbook shows how the Sibiu version of the Transylvanian Romanian network of Reunions chose to deal with industrialization and women’s work. Compared to the Hunedoara Reunion’s social pedagogy concerning women’s work, the Sibiu Reunion was embracing technological change more openly. For comparison, see Reuniunea Femeilor Romane Hunedoara, Reuniunea femeilor române din Comitatul Hunedoarei 1886-1911 [The Reunion of Romanian Women from the District of Hunedoara, 1886-1911] (Orastie: Tipografia Noua, 1912). Furthermore, this Yearbook shows how the Reunion wanted to promote women’s and national progress simultaneously, by linking young Romanian women’s improved career opportunities to the furthering of the national cause. The Reunion recognized and developed practices around certain class issues as well (visible in their seeking to grant scholarships to all students of the Housekeeping school). This Yearbook contributes to a better understanding of the evolution of Transylvanian Romanian women’s associations in the years right before, during and immediately after the Great War. KEYWORDS: Women Interacting with Women, Social Movements, and Other Actors Beyond Empire; Women and Nation within Empire; Women and Nation-Building; Women and Relationship Between Nations in the Empire; Social Reform and Political Activism; Women and Education; Gendered Education; Education in National Languages; Education as a Source of Women’s Emancipation; The Home Economics Movement; Work and Class Identity; Habsburg Empire; Home industry; Funds and donations; Municipal activism; People’s Kitchens; Archduke Franz Salvator, Archduke of Austria, Prince of Tuscany; Princess Marie of Edinburgh, Queen Marie of Romania

Field of Interest

Women and Social Movements

Collection

Women and Social Movements, Modern Empires Since 1820

Corporate Author

Reunion of Romanian Women in Sibiu

Content Type

Book

Duration

0 sec

Format

Text

Page Count

33

Publication Year

1912

Publisher

Tiparul Tipografia Arhidiecezane

Place Published / Released

Sibiu, Sibiu County

Subject

Women and Social Movements, History, Women and Politics, Transnational Women’s Movement, Mujer y Política, Mulher e Política, Movimiento de Mujeres Transnacional, Movimento Feminista Transnacional, Reunion of Romanian Women in Sibiu, Franz Salvator, Archduke of Austria, 1866-1939, Marie, of Romania, 1875-1938, Sibiu, Sibiu County, Women and Education, Women, Colonization, Empire, and Post Coloniality, Social Reform and Political Activism, Political and Human Rights, Indigenous Women, Empire and Education, Education as a Source of Women’s Emancipation, Gendered Education, Empire and Feminism, National Identity, Multi-Ethnic Participation in Social Movements, Social and Cultural Rights, Social and Political Leadership, Romanians

Topic

Empire and Education, Education as a Source of Women’s Emancipation, Gendered Education, Empire and Feminism, National Identity, Multi-Ethnic Participation in Social Movements, Social and Cultural Rights, Social and Political Leadership

Keywords and Translated Subjects

Mujer y Política, Mulher e Política, Movimiento de Mujeres Transnacional, Movimento Feminista Transnacional