ROMANIAN WOMEN'S EDUCATION AND SOCIAL ACTIVISM AT THE END OF 19TH CENTURY

The current article focuses on the pedagogical dimension of the emancipatory discourses published by the Romanian novelist Sofia Nadejde in two newspapers, namely "Contemporanul" [The Contemporary] and "Femeia Romana" [The Romanian Woman], at the end of the 19th Century. The interval covers the period associated with the constitutional monarchy, which began with the leadership of the United Principalities of Moldova and the Romanian Country of King Carol I, in 1866. At that time, women education became politically important for the shaping of national imaginary, yet of secondary importance in terms of access to knowledge. From a socio-political perspective, 1866 is the year when the first Constitution of modern Romania was issued, an act which stipulated free and compulsory education, regardless of social class or gender differences. From an educational perspective, the end of the 19th Century is dominated by the reform project initiated by Spiru Haret, through the Law of Secondary and Higher Education from 1898, and the Law of Vocational Education from 1899, prioritizing the population's literacy, the establishment of the first schools for adults and the setup of the vocational schools for girls, who did not pursue an academic education. The literature in the field claims that studies on the topic centre on deconstructivism in oder to annihilate and rebuild the image of women in society (Purvis, 1991; Howell & Beth, 2002; De Haan, Daskalova, & Loutfi, 2006). (C) 2018 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.UK