Sarmiza Bilcescu, Europe’s first female lawyer

Sarmiza Bilcescu was Romania's first female lawyer and also the first woman to get a doctoral degree from the University of Sorbonne.

Christine Leșcu, 02.04.2016, 14:20

The beginnings of the women’s
emancipation movement in Romania are linked to the intensification of the
country’s modernisation in the second half of the 19th century. At
the time, some women started to learn trades and professions that until then
had been practiced exclusively by men, such as science and law. Born in April
1867, Sarmiza Bilcescu was a pioneer in this respect. She was Romania’s first
female lawyer and also the first woman to earn a doctoral degree in law from
the University of Sorbonne. At the time, her achievement enjoyed wide coverage
in the international press. Historian Alin Ciupala tells us her success was the
result of an opening up of higher education to women:

If you look at
the Western newspapers from 1895, when Sarmiza Bilcescu was awarded her
doctoral title by the Sorbonne, you will notice that her achievement was
celebrated as a major event across the continent. Sarmiza Bilcescu was born
into a liberal family that belonged to Romania’s liberal elite of the second
half of the 19th century. Her family was close to the Bratianu
family who gave the founder of the National Liberal Party, Ion Bratianu.
Sarmiza Bilcescu dedicated herself to her studies, reading law at the
University of Bucharest and later going to Paris to study for a doctoral title
in law at the Sorbonne. It was not so unusual for a woman to go to university
in Romania at the time, as the Faculty of Letters had already started to accept
female students in 1870 or 1871. The Faculty of Letters was the first faculty
that allowed women to register for courses. The truly exceptional achievement
was Sarmiza Bilcescu’s earning a doctoral title from the Sorbonne because at
the time, the young women of the French Republic were not allowed to register
for a doctoral course at this university. Sarmiza Bilcescu was accepted because
she was there on a scholarship as a foreign student, but hers was an
exceptional case. She was Europe’s first woman to earn a doctoral degree in law
from the Sorbonne. The Romanian press gave extensive cover to the event and
when she returned to her home country, she was given a warm reception by the
Ilfov Bar, whose president was the well-known conservative politician Take
Ionescu.

Having earned her doctoral
title and joined the Bar, Sarmiza Bilcescu realised it was not going to be easy
for her to make it in a profession dominated by men. Many of her contemporaries
still saw her as a woman and not as a professional lawyer. The glass ceiling
was still there, as historian Alin Ciupala explains:

We would have
expected her to dedicate herself to her profession and advance on the path she
had taken, but this is where the split occurred. Law is a liberal profession
and therefore open to anyone as long as they have clients that can provide a
source of income. Unfortunately, Sarmiza Bilcescu realised her worst fears were
founded, namely that very few Romanians had the courage to reveal their
personal problems to her and ask for her professional advice. This is how her
career came to an end, a career that had started out so well. Sarmiza Bilcescu
soon had to give up the legal profession and devote herself to domestic life.
She married a young man called Ion Alimanisteanu, who also came from a liberal
family, and retreated from the public sphere.

Before her death in August
1935, Sarmiza Bilcescu co-founded a society that promoted education for women