Persophone Papadopulou

Persophone Papadopulou (1887—1948), was a Cypriotic feminist.[1] She was a pioneering figure in the feminist and women's movement in Cyprus.

She belonged to the minority of Cypriotic elite women who were educated abroad in a time period when there was not yet a university in Cyprus. She founded and managed the feminist periodical Estiades (1913-1915). It was the first feminist newspaper in Cyprus, and held an international standard, informing women of the international women's movement at the time.[2] It was a pioneering publication in a time period when Cyprus did not yet have any organized women's movement. However, the short period of feminist debate did not result in any organized women's movement in Cyprus, since the level of education was so low in Cyprus - many women still being illiterate - that the periodical was not able to reach more than a small circle of educated elite women (no women's movement was to organize in Cyprus until the mid 20th-century).[3]