Ecaterina Arbore (1873–1937) was a physician and socialist labour activist whose work mostly took place in Romania, the Soviet Union, and international communist networks. Born into a family of radical intellectuals, she was deeply influenced by socialist thought. Having studied medicine in Romania and France, she developed a lifelong commitment to improving the living and working conditions of lower-class women and their children. Her activism was marked by a combination of intellectual rigour, grassroots mobilization, and a commitment to peace.

Arbore’s engagement in the labour movement began in the early 1890s, when she became involved in Romania’s socialist circles. In 1912, she became a member of the Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Party of Romania, which sought to unify and organize the country’s growing industrial workforce. She recognized the essential role that women could play in the socialist movement and fought against their marginalization within party structures. Leading the socialist “Feminine Circle” in Bucharest from 1913 to 1918, Arbore insisted that women should play an active role in socialist politics beyond auxiliary tasks, arguing for their inclusion in meaningful political and organizational work.

Her writings and public speeches reflected Arbore's commitment to highlighting the struggles of working women. In 1911, she delivered a powerful lecture on the exploitation of women in both factory settings and home industries. Her concerns mirrored broader European debates about women’s labour rights, and she drew inspiration from figures like German socialist Clara Zetkin, advocating for working-class women’s autonomy and full participation in the socialist movement. She was acutely aware of the ways women’s economic exploitation was tied to broader capitalist structures, and argued that their liberation could only be achieved through systemic change.

Ecaterina Arbore (Source: MNIR)

Her advocacy extended beyond theoretical discourse. As a physician, she saw first-hand the devastating impact of poor labour conditions on women’s health and used her expertise to campaign for improvements in sanitation, workplace safety, and childcare provisions for working mothers. Her research on tuberculosis in Bucharest and her work with foster children reflected her broader concerns about public health as a social issue that was inextricably linked to poverty and labour conditions.

The outbreak of World War I saw Arbore align herself with the anti-war socialist left. She called for Romania’s neutrality, viewing the war as a struggle between imperialist powers rather than one that served the interests of the working class. Her involvement in transnational socialist networks, including connections with the Bulgarian and Russian socialist movements, underscored her belief that labour struggles could not be confined to national borders.

Following the war, Arbore, like other socialists with revolutionary inclinations, became an exile in the Soviet Union. There, she became a committed member of the Communist International (the Comintern), contributed to discussions on women’s labour in Soviet publications, and participated in broader debates about socialist policies concerning working-class women. Like many foreign communists in the USSR, Arbore fell victim to Stalin’s purges in 1937; she was arrested and executed during the Great Terror. Decades later, her contributions were recognized, and she was politically rehabilitated in Romania in 1968. Ecaterina Arbore’s insistence on the visibility of women in the labour movement and her unwavering commitment to workers’ rights places her among the key figures of Eastern European socialist history.