Sofia Nădejde

Sofia Nădejde (born Sofia Băncilă; September 14, 1856–June 11, 1946) was a Romanian novelist, playwright, translator, journalist, women's rights activist and socialist.

Born in Botoșani , her parents were merchant Vasile Băncilă-Gheorghiu and his wife Pulheria (née Neculce). Her husband was journalist Ioan Nădejde, and she was the sister of painter Octav Băncilă. She attended primary and girl's boarding school in her native town, taking her high school leaving examination in Iași. A member of the socialist circle in the latter city, she undertook a sustained journalistic campaign for women's social and political emancipation. In 1893, she led Evenimentul literar magazine; publications that ran her work include Femeia română, the official socialist Contemporanul, Drepturile omului, Literatură și știință, Lumea nouă, Lumea nouă științifică și literară, Universul, Albina, Adevărul, Noua revistă română, Dimineața and Arta. She was part of the Contemporanul circle, alongside Constantin Mille, Traian Demetrescu, Anton Bacalbașa, Paul Bujor and Ștefan Băsărăbeanu. Her articles dealt with the evolution of the family, women's place in the socialist movement, prejudices regarding women's education, social movements and women's work, both rural and factory. She displayed deep familiarity with contemporary European philosophical and scientific thinking, referencing John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx and August Bebel. Writing in Contemporanul, she began a campaign against the then-common idea that women's smaller brains precluded them from attaining a higher spiritual plane or participating in politics. Using the latest available information, Nădejde demonstrated that female brains are proportionally larger than men's, and was involved in an especially acerbic polemic with Titu Maiorescu. She then shifted to factors such as social environment, prejudice, discriminatory laws and insufficient education to explain women's backward state, using Mill's Subjection of Women to call for political and civil rights.

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