There isn’t a Romanian who doesn’t know about Simona Halep, the first female tennis player to become WTA World number one.
She is also known for being a courageous woman that loved adventure. She was an avid climber, a walker and a writer. She even challenged Titu Maiorescu’s theory about women having less intellectual capacity than men.
Maia Morgenstern
Maia Morgenstern is a Romanian stage and film actress, described by Florin Mitu of AMOS News as “a symbol of Romanian theatre and cinema”. She has received international recognition for her role as Mary in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. She has also starred in several other films including Prea cald pentru luna mai / Too Hot for May, Secretul lui Bachus / The Secret of Bacchus and Dreptate în lanturi / Chained Justice.
Born in the Harghita region of Romania, which is also known as “the north pole of the country” for its ice cold winters, she was inspired to become a doctor at an early age. She opted for ophthalmology at first, but the start of World War II changed her plans for good. Upon being sent to her hometown hospital she volunteered to take care of the patients suffering from typhus, a terrible disease that claimed hundreds of lives, especially among children.
She soon realized that her medical skills are not limited to ophthalmology and decided to switch to neurosurgery. She has since performed thousands of surgeries. She has released 17 albums and has collaborated with jazz stars such as Jon Hendricks, Johnny Raducanu, Mircea Tiberian or Garbis Dedeian.
Angela Gheorghiu
Angela Gheorghiu is a unique international opera superstar, whose magnificent voice and dazzling stage presence have brought the highest values of operatic art to a worldwide audience on an extraordinarily broad scale. A magnetic communicator, she engages with her audience on an emotional level.
She made her professional debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1990 and has since sung in major opera houses around the world, including London’s Royal Opera House, Berlin’s Staatsoper, and Vienna’s State Opera. She has also recorded a substantial discography, mainly for EMI Classics and Decca.
Gheorghiu grew up in the small Romanian town of Adjud, daughter of a dressmaker and train operator. Her childhood was marred by the repressive regime of Nicolae Ceausescu, an era that informed her depiction of doomed heroine Mimi in Puccini’s La Boheme.
In 1992, she made her Covent Garden debut as Zerlina in one performance of Don Giovanni with Bryn Terfel, followed by a stunning portrayal of Mimi in the next season’s production of Tosca. The critics were in awe, and she was quickly dubbed “a diva to die for.”
Elena Cariagiani Stoenescu
Elena Caragiani-Stoenescu was the first Romanian female aviator. She was born in Tecuci in 1887 and died in 1929 in Bucharest. She was also a writer and campaigned for women’s rights. She was a versatile woman who approached vast fields, such as folklore, history, art and geography.
Smaranda wanted to become an aviator, which was very uncommon for a woman at that time. She entered the League of Aviation, a flying school run by Prince George Valentin Bibescu, as the only female student, which provoked indignation. She received pilot lessons from Constantine Fotescu, Captain Capsa and Mircea Zorileanu on “Farman”, “Wright” and “Santos Dumont” airplanes that were specially built for training purposes. However, her application to receive the civil pilot license from the Ministry of Education and Civil Defense was rejected by Spiru Haret and General Crainiceanu.
As an Earth sign, you are efficient and concrete; your intuition is a guide that helps you decide what to do and when. You are a loyal and obstinate person, but you mustn’t confuse obstinacy with intransigence. Your emotions are powerful, but they must be accompanied by energy and communication. You are attracted to complicated situations and can easily be a femme fatale.
Sarmiza Bilcescu
Sarmiza Bilcescu was one of the first Romanian women to earn a law degree. She was also a political activist and founder member of Societatea Domnisoarelor Romane (The Society of Romanian Young Ladies). Although her work as a lawyer was not as successful as she hoped, she still became a famous face within Romania and her name is well known worldwide thanks to her portrayal of Mary in Mel Gibson’s critically acclaimed movie The Passion of Christ.
After completing her high school studies, Bilcescu went to Paris to study at the Sorbonne University. At that time, pursuing an advanced degree was a bold move for any woman. In fact, some of her professors resented her presence in their classrooms. However, she worked hard and gradually won their respect.
After graduating from the university, she returned to Romania. During World War I, she helped with humanitarian activities of the Red Cross and administrated some war hospitals. Afterwards, she started working at the Geological Institute of Bucharest and headed several geology laboratories. She was also involved in field studies and identified new resources such as coal, shale, oil, and gas. She also advocated for international disarmament.
Aurora Gruescu
Dora D’Istria lived a spectacular life, but it wasn’t without its own set of problems. She was an adventurous woman, always looking for new experiences and a challenge. She climbed mountains, travelled to exotic places and was always attracted by adventure and knowledge.
In those times, being a female aviator was inconceivable. She attended the Aerial League school in Bucharest but was denied a license because of her gender. Luckily, she managed to find an indirect way of approaching aviation and at the end of the 1920s, she bought her first parachute.
Aurora Gruescu was born on 11 May 1914 in Oituz, a village in the county of Bacau and died on 2005. She was the world’s first female silvicultor engineer and Romania’s first woman to make it into Guinness Book of Records.
She was a well-known feminist and social activist, as she fought for the rights of women. She paved the way for future generations of Romanian feminists and she will be remembered forever as a great lady.
Ana Aslan
Ana Aslan was one of the most famous Romanian women of her time, and she was also a physician. She had many patients from all over the world, including some of the most well-known figures in the history like Charles de Gaulle, Salvador Dali, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo and Sir Winston Churchill. She was born in Braila on 1 January 1897. After the death of her father, she moved with her family to Bucharest and started her studies in Romascanu College. She decided to become a doctor, a profession that at that time was considered as not suitable for women. To fight her mother’s opposition, she went on a hunger strike and in the end her mother relented and allowed her to enroll in medical school.
She graduated in 1922. During the First World War, she cared for wounded soldiers in military hospitals. Later, she worked with Daniel Danielopolu (1884-1955) on vasomotor regulation. She became a professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Timisoara and founded the Institute of Geriatrics in 1952, which was the first of its kind in the world.
She is a member of The Scientific Academy of New York and an honorary member of the European Center for Medical Research. She was also a founding member of the Romanian Society for Gerontology and president of the International Association of Geriatrics until her death in 1988.
Cecilia Cutescu Storck
Cecilia Cutescu Storck, an artist who had a huge influence over Romanian art in the period between the two World Wars, was the first woman accepted as a university art professor in Europe. It was a difficult process as back then women were not seen as capable of such an academic position.
She was born in the village of Raul Vadului and she would follow her passion for art to Vienna, where she attended the famous art school of the time. There she met Fritz Storck, one of the most important sculptors of her time. It was he who encouraged her to make a career out of her artistic talents.
Smaranda Braescu dreamed of becoming an aviator but it was a man’s world less than a century ago. She had the courage and she did not give up, so she finally got her license to fly a plane.
Nadia Comaneci is one of the most famous gymnasts in the history of the Olympic Games and she is still admired today for being the first woman to receive a perfect ten score in the Montreal Olympics. You have probably heard of Ana Aslan as she is the doctor who promised people to bring their youth back and she received the Leon Bernard award from WHO for her research in delaying the aging process.
