Adele Zay | |
|---|---|
 Zay, portrait produced for the 50th anniversary of the Adele Zay School 1884–1935, Kronstadt, Romania | |
| Born | 29 February 1848[citation needed] |
| Died | 29 December 1928 (aged 80) |
| Other names | Zay Adél |
| Occupation(s) | teacher, pedagogue, women's rights advocate |
| Years active | 1865–1927 |
| Relatives | Gustav Adolf Zay (brother) |
Adele Zay (29 February 1848 – 29 December 1928) was a Transylvanian teacher, feminist and pedagogue. Her family were part of the German-speaking community of the Kingdom of Hungary. Because of her father's death during her infancy, Zay's education was interrupted by periods where she taught to earn money in order to continue private and formal studies. In 1880 after studying abroad in Vienna and Gotha, she passed her primary education certification for Germany and Hungary. The following year, she was certified as a secondary teacher, becoming the first Transylvanian woman to have earned a higher education. From 1875 to 1884, she taught at the Institute of Irma Keméndy in Szeged.
After almost a decade in Szeged, Zay accepted a post at a newly established normal school for training kindergarten teachers in Kronstadt (Brassó). Though ostensibly a teacher, from the beginning Zay was the creative force behind the development of the school and designed the syllabus. She led the school from 1884 to 1927, becoming its official director in 1922. Simultaneously with her relocation to Kronstadt, Zay joined the General Women's Association of the Transylvanian Evangelical Church and became one of the leaders in pressing for women's rights. She successfully agitated for kindergarten and handicraft teachers to be recognized as educators and entitled to pensions. She lobbied for the teaching profession to be opened to women, which was accomplished in 1901, and for a women's normal school to be established, which occurred in 1903.
Zay wrote books on the theory of child education which were distributed throughout Hungary and Germany and used as training texts until World War II. Having made contact during her studies abroad with international feminists, Zay pressed for women to be given the right to vote. In 1918, her campaign resulted in women gaining the ability to vote in church elections. She founded the Freie Sächsische Frauenbund (Free Saxon Women's League) in 1920 as an umbrella organization to help women agitate for socio-political rights from the Kingdom of Romania, under whose jurisdiction Transylvania fell after the conclusion of World War I. In the 1920s, she served as a member of parliament and a member of the District Committee for the People's Council of Burzenland. She remained active in educational and political movements until her death in 1928.