Women in Romanian Historical Mythology – Gender Perspectives and Stereotypes

Abstract The study explores the historical context in which some female figures gained a legendary aura. As well, we focused on the processes by which they entered the gallery of Romanian historical personalities. We also researched whether the selection of female figures was dependent on the gender stereotypes of the period. The study follows the theoretical framework of gender history studies. We applied it to a case study of Transylvania in the second half of the nineteenth century. The approach starts from the presumption that, during this period of time, the roles that Romanians had to assume in the national project were gender determined. We argue that the intellectuals’ efforts to offer common people an example to inspire their behavior connect with the Romanians’ emancipation movement in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In this context, a series of historical personalities were promoted as role models for Romanians. In fact, the national mythological pantheon was articulated also because of this debate over the ideal Romanian man and woman.