Authors

Sonia Andras¹;  ¹ Gheorghe Sincai Institute for Social Sciences and the Humanities, Romania

Discussion

This paper will examine the main factors contributing to the significant nurse shortage in Romania during the Second World War, despite the dedicated foreign assistance provided throughout the interwar period. It will focus specifically on the support provided by the Rockefeller Foundation in the 1920s and 1930s to develop modern nursing education in Romania. The research will focus on the misconceptions surrounding women’s roles in peacetime and wartime medicine. It will also examine the international interest and support for establishing a modern and effective nursing education system in interwar Romania, as well as the response of Romanian authorities to these initiatives. The paper will explore the gendered aspects of women’s work, analysing their representation and significance in the negotiations between women’s emancipation and the patriarchal system of interwar Romania while addressing preconceived notions about women’s intellectual, professional, and technical abilities. A critical examination will also be conducted on how the pervasive dismissal of professions traditionally associated with women, alongside the trivialisation of topics such as fashion and beauty, led to the Romanian state misjudging nurses’ importance in medicine and society. It will also investigate the intrinsic connection between health, beauty and fashion, as portrayed in interwar propaganda targeting women and the broader social strata of interwar Romanian society. This paper will employ an interdisciplinary methodology grounded in gender studies while also reaching out to fields such as media and fashion studies alongside social, medical, and cultural histories and semiotics to analyse both visual and written texts. The primary materials for this research will include Rockefeller Foundation fellow cards, records, annuals, diaries and reports from observers and associated individuals. The study will also draw from Romanian interwar publications that reference the Foundation’s efforts to develop nursing in Romania, capturing the general perception of nurses as reflected in books, periodicals, pamphlets, and personal diaries. This paper aims to make a significant contribution to the field of Romanian Studies by opening new avenues for research into gendered professional dynamics, highlighting subtle sexism and outright misogynistic policies that have historically disregarded women’s professions like nursing in interwar Romania. It will analyse lesser-discussed women who were Rockefeller Fellows and intended to become modern nurses. It will also examine little-known primary materials in the Rockefeller Foundation archives and explore lesser-known public sources from interwar Romania. This paper will contribute to the knowledge in the field of Romanian Studies of gendered negotiations in interwar Romania. It will deepen the twenty-first-century understanding of interwar Romanian gender discourse, informing future discussions and actions in academia and beyond.