Every year on December 1st, we promote outstanding female personalities in Romania. Given that women have not always had equal rights with men, they have fought to change the mentality of their time of life. Two of Romania’s remarkable women are Elena Caragini Stonesescu, the first Romanian to have obtained the pilot licence and Sarmiza Bilcescu, the first woman with a doctorate in law.

Elena Caragiani Stoenescu – the first Romanian aviator

She was born on 13 May 1887 in Tecuci. The daughter of the Macedonian doctor Alexandru Caragiani and Zeniei Radovic, they led her to an academic career and in 1913 she obtained her degree at the Faculty of Legal Sciences with a lawyer career ahead of her.

In love with aviation, she began to inquire to those specializing in the field, such as her brother-in-law, Lieutenant Andrei Popovici. She enrolls in the “Airline League”, the pilot school run by Prince George Valentin Bibescu, being the only female student, which aroused indignation. Pilot lessons were given by Constantin Fotescu, Captain Nicu Capsa and Mircea Zorileanu on “Farman”, “Wright” or “Santos Dumont” aircrafts, special for training. After finishing the flight, she wishes to obtain the civilian pilot’s patent and adheres to the ministries of Education and Defense who rejected her request, which causes her to leave for France. She enrolled at the Aviation Civil School in Mourmelon le Grand. She attended the classes and passed all the exams and received the Pilot Patent on January 22, 1915, at the age of 27. At that time when the Romanian woman obtained the patent, there were only 10 female women in the world.

She returned to the country in 1916, when Romania entered the war. She asked to be allowed to enter the fight to defend her homeland as a warplane pilot but was refused. After the request for entry into the fighting body was denied, Elena Caragiani made another attempt in her desire to contribute to defending her homeland. She asked to be allowed to carry sanitary supplies and drugs and participate in the evacuation of the wounded. In two years she made dozens of flights to help and rescue the Romanian military on the front.

After the war she married the lawyer Virgil Stoenescu. She left for Paris and continued to be a journalist, becoming famous for airplane reports. It is said that between 1917-1928, she made a series of famous aerial reports in countries from Africa and South America. Elena Caragiani Stoenescu died at the age of 42, on March 29, 1929, with tuberculosis. She was buried at the Bellu Cemetery. The first Romanian to have obtained the pilot’s patent remained in history as a road opener.

Sarmiza Bilcescu – the first female with a PHD in law

He was born in Bucharest on April 27, 1867, in the family of Dumitru Bilcescu (from Bilceşti-Muşcel), former head of the Financial Control. Her father, Dumitru Bilcescu, a good friend of the Brătianu family, wanted a boy. The later temperament of the child baptized after the name of Sarmisegetuza was about to approach that of a boy. Sarmiza, the brave child who played and fought with Brătianu’s boys, got the nickname “Voinica” in her childhood. She studied at home until the age of seven with teacher Păun, and later as an adolescent attended the courses of the “Sava” College in Bucharest. She graduated her Bacalaureate at the age of 17.

She studied at the Sorbonne. Accompanied by her mother Maria Bilcescu, she first enrolled at the Faculty of Letters but, with the cholera epidemic, she returned to the country. With the help and support of her father, Sarmiza returned to the Sorbonne, but this time at the Faculty of Law. “Reception from the teachers was glacial, and the reception from the students was done with great respect,” Sarmiza’s story about the moment of joining the students of Law. It is said that at one of the first courses, the Romanian was “invited” by a teacher to go out of the classroom. “No women! … Science is done among men!”, said Paul Sonday, a Sorbonne teacher, at the appearance of Sarmiza Bilcescu in the amphitheater filled with male students.

Though not seen well, because at that time women did not have civil, social or political rights equal to men, she managed to defeat the system, fought for the emancipation of women by the power of her own example, and managed to change mentalities.

The day of June 12, 1890, would remain in the Annals of the Sorbonne Law University as the first day a woman sustained her PhD thesis at the Faculty of Law and obtained the academic title of Doctor in Law. Sarmiza Bilcescu was only 23 years old when she held her thesis, entering history forever. The thesis was called “About the Legal Condition of the Mother in Romanian and French Law” and was a document that promoted the idea of women’s equality with men in marriage and child rights.

Returns to the country and is received at the Ilfov Bar. The decision raises enthusiastic reactions throughout Europe, accompanied by extensive articles in the press and eulogistic letters from senior officials. Thus, dean of the Faculty of Law in Brussels, Louis Frank, sent a letter to the Council of Attorneys, stating that “Romania has the honor of introducing for the first time a great innovation in the existence of the bar.”

Sarmiza Bilcescu was very active in feminist circles, being among the founders of the Romanian Ladies’ Society, which was aiming to fight for the increase of education among women. She created centers for the work of national costumes, sewing workshops in rural areas. She held the position of President of the Federation of University Women. She also flirted with the political career, and in the 1930s she was nominated on the lists of the National Liberal Party. She was called “the mother of the troubled and deprived, the student’s support” for the charity and the help given to the others.

In 1935, she left public life and retired to Romaneşti-Muscel. Here she died on August 26, 1935, being buried in a national costume. By will left 25 million lei for the building of the House of Commerce Palace.

Surse articol: http://enciclopediaromaniei.ro/wiki/Elena_Caragiani-Stoenescu
http://adevarul.ro/locale/alexandria/fabuloasa-poveste-elenei-caragiani-femeie-pilot-romania-cucerit-intreaga-lume-autoritatile-tara-refuzat-sa-i-dea-brevet-1_559fbe08f5eaafab2c6eac76/index.html
http://adevarul.ro/locale/alexandria/viata-uimitoare-sarmizei-bilcescu-femeie-avocat-europa-daramat-sistem-n-a-profesat-niciodata-1_55b8b4f1f5eaafab2c0e6626/index.html
https://www.historia.ro/sectiune/portret/articol/povestea-sarmizei-bilcescu-prima-femeie-avocat-din-europa