Early career (1865–1884)

By the age of 17, Zay had begun tutoring and within three years was teaching French and German^[3] at the Mädchenerziehungsanstalt von Philippine Barreaud (Philippine Barreaud Girls' Educational Institute) in Hermannstadt. When the school closed in 1873, she moved to the Cotroceni neighborhood of Bucharest and taught at the Mädchenerziehungs- und Lehrerinnenbildungsanstalt Asyl Helene (Helena Asylum Girls' Educational and Teacher Training Institute),^[1][3] where one of her older sisters was employed as a teacher.^[4] The Helena Asylum was an orphanage established in 1862 by Elena Cuza, the princess consort of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia.^[5][6] It was later operated under the patronage of Queen Elisabeth of Wied.^[1][7] Zay taught classes in German language, geography, and history.^[3]

In 1875, wanting to further her education, Zay went to Vienna and took a training seminar with Friedrich Dittes, a school reformer and advocate of the Fröbel method. She also undertook private lessons in Gotha with August Köhler, an adherent of Fröbel's principals who instructed her in pedagogy.^[1][3] By December, Zay had secured a new post, teaching English and German languages, geography and mathematics at the Institute of Irma Keméndy in Szeged.^[1] While teaching, Zay continued her own studies at the Keméndy Institute's normal school. In 1880, she passed the examination to teach in German and Hungarian state elementary schools. The following year, she passed an additional exam at the Budapest Public Normal School to teach French and English, becoming the first Transylvanian-Saxon teacher certified to teach secondary education.^[3] She continued teaching and worked as an administrator at the Keméndy Institute until 1884, when the presbyterium of the Evangelical Church of Augsburg Confession invited her to teach in their newly established normal school for training kindergarten teachers.^[1]

Kronstadt (1884–1917)

After almost a decade in Szeged, Zay accepted the post at the Kindergärtnerinnenbildungsanstalt von der Evangelischen Landeskirche-AB (KBA-AB) (Kindergarten Teachers Training College of the Evangelical Church of Augsburg Confession) and moved to Kronstadt (Brassó). Though appointed as a classroom teacher under the headmaster, from the beginning Zay was the driving force and creative leader of the institution.^[3] As the only woman with a degree in higher education, she was entrusted with creating the syllabus,^[4] which included classes in educational and kindergarten theory, German and Hungarian languages, geography, history, and a practicum.^[1][3] Having been exposed to the women's movement during her studies in Germany over the previous decade,^[3] Zay joined the General Women's Association of the Transylvanian Evangelical Church upon its founding in 1884 and became one of the leaders in pressing for women's rights.^[8] In 1888, she presented a lecture Die Frau als Lehrerin (The Woman as Teacher) arguing that equal rights should be employed in the girls' schools operated by the Transylvanian Evangelical Church. She pointed out that in 1887 a proposal for hiring women teachers had been rejected based on the rationale that the Church would have to open and operate a normal school to train them.^[9][10]

At the 1889 National Exhibition for Infant Education in Budapest, Zay was honored with a citation for her work while the courses she taught at the school won the gold prize.^[3] Also that year, the KBA-AB curriculum was approved by the Hungarian crown^[11] and by 1891 her work and changes in the government requirements had transformed early education in Hungary. In 1892, the school was officially accredited by the state^[3] and two years later Zay designed a three-month long continuing education course to prepare caretakers for rural children, while their parents were engaged in planting and harvesting. The social work done by these caretakers, who focused on teaching children their native language and customs, built bridges between rural families and the towns where the caretakers lived. Also in 1894, she successfully appealed to the church authorities, arguing that kindergarten and handicraft teachers, who taught technical skill and helped preserve folk art but were not considered educators, should qualify for retirement pensions.^[9]

In 1896, Zay published Theorie und Praxis der Kleinkindererziehung (Theory and Practice of Infant Education), a textbook which expressed the importance of the kindergarten in children's social development. She instructed teachers to allow children to learn from supervised activity and observation, noting that playing with each other stimulated their development as members of their community.^[3][12] Revised and republished under the title Theorie und Praxis des Kindergartens (Theory and Practice of the Kindergarten) in 1916, the book was widely used in Germany to train teachers until the advent of World War II.^[3] In 1898, Zay published a second book, Hilfsbüchlein zur Heranbildung von Leiterinnen von Sommerbewahranstalten (Help Booklet for the Further Education of Women Leading Summer Shelters), giving practical advice for teachers to organize summer activities for children to continue their socialization. A second edition was issued in 1918.^[3]

After numerous petitions to the authorities, in 1901 Zay was finally successful in her push to open the teaching profession to women. A further success occurred when the first Transylvanian normal school for women opened in 1903 in Schäßburg (Segesvár). Having used her summers to further her own education in England, France, and Germany, Zay made contact with international feminists,^[9][12] like Minna Cauer and Jeanette Schwerin.^[3] She began to agitate for changes in child labor laws, called for the suppression of national rhetoric in publications and speeches, and championed the cause of equality, including suffrage for women.^[9][12]

Later career (1918–1928)

In the aftermath of World War I, and the Hungarian–Romanian War, the Kingdom of Romania gained jurisdiction over Transylvania.^[13][14] In 1918, women gained the right to vote in church elections^[9][12] and in 1920, Zay founded the Freie Sächsische Frauenbund (Free Saxon [i.e. German-speaking] Women's League). The umbrella organization aimed to unite ethnically-German women's groups for socio-political action within the Romanian state.^[3][15] Through the group, she continued to press for women's education, calling for secondary technical education for girls and introducing up-bringing and nursery-care courses at girls' high schools.^[3] She led the umbrella organization until 1925, when she was succeeded by Lotte Binder.^[16][17]

Elected as a member of parliament in 1920, Zay also served as a member of the District Committee for the People's Council of Burzenland. She was officially named director of the KBA-AB in 1922, holding the post until she retired in 1927.^[3] In her 43-year tenure, she had succeeded in graduating over 830 students.^[18] In 1924, Zay implemented changes to incorporate the new cultural policies required by the Romanian state,^[3] and the following year she was elected President of the Women's League.^[19] For her 80th birthday in 1928, the league organized a national fundraiser, collecting over 250,000 Romanian lei to establish the Adele Zay Foundation for the Preservation of Saxon Kindergartens.^[12][19]