Trei deenii de educație feminină brașoveană consemnate în Gazeta Transilvaniei

Due to the local character that Gazeta Transilvaniei had in its early years, we are able to complete the history of the city of Brașov, including with regard to educational opportunities for girls. The main research source for the period studied, 1850–1885, was the Brașov newspaper, printed in the Cyrillic alphabet until 1862, which had Iacob Mureșianu (1812–1887) as its owner (1850–1887) and editor-in-chief (1850–1877). For the period 1878–1885, the editor-in-chief of the Gazeta was his son, Aurel Mureșianu, PhD (1847–1909).The press of the time functioned as a space dominated almost exclusively by men – both as authors and as the target audience, and Gazeta Transilvaniei was no exception. The male discourse defined women as sensitive beings, guarantors of family morality, and the patriarchal vision was dominant.With regard to girls’ education, Brașov distinguished itself as a promoter of it. In 1544, at the initiative of the local Evangelical community, the first school for girls on Romanian territory was founded. In the second half of the 19th century, the educational offer in Brașov, recorded in the pages of Gazeta Transilvaniei, consisted of: the normal schools of the three confessions (Evangelical, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox), the vocational school of the Romanian Women’s Association, the private institutes Vautier and Humpel, as well as various courses in sewing, dance, painting, etc.The school programs published in the newspaper’s advertisements further complete the educational picture.Although there were voices advocating for girls’ education in the second half of the 19th century, it was, for the most part, conceived as a formative endeavor oriented toward the domestic sphere.