Margaret Papandreou, prominent figure in Greece’s women’s movement, dies at 103
Margaret Papandreou, a prominent figure in Greece’s women’s movement and former wife of late Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, died on Friday at the age of 103, according to associates of her son, former Prime Minister George Papandreou.
Papandreou died at around 10 a.m. at her home in the Athens-area suburb of Faliro, according to Greek media reports.
From Illinois to Greece
Born Margaret Esther Chad in Oak Park, Illinois, on Sept. 30, 1923, she married Andreas Papandreou in 1951. The couple had four children: George, Andreas (Andrikos), Nikos and Sofia.
Andreas Papandreou became prime minister in 1981, and Margaret Papandreou subsequently assumed a prominent public role, particularly through her advocacy for women's rights.
A leading voice for women's rights
In 1975, she founded the Union of Women of Greece, which became an influential organization within the country's women's movement.
During the 1970s and 1980s, she campaigned for greater political and social participation by women and for changes to legislation governing family and gender relations.
Greece introduced major reforms to family law in 1982, including the abolition of the dowry system, greater legal equality between spouses, and the introduction of civil marriage and consensual divorce. Abortion was decriminalized in 1986.
Role on the international stage
Papandreou's activism extended beyond Greece. In 1985, she headed the Greek delegation to the United Nations World Conference on Women in Nairobi.
She described her political approach as an effort to bring together socialism and feminism, while placing particular emphasis on encouraging women, including those outside Greece's major urban centres, to participate in public life.
More than a political spouse
Although widely known because of her marriage to Andreas Papandreou, she developed an independent public profile as an activist and writer and remained associated with Greece's women's movement for decades.
Her son George Papandreou served as Greece's prime minister from 2009 to 2011 and later as leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK). Her son Nikos Papandreou has also been involved in public and political life.
Margaret Papandreou's death marks the end of a long public life spanning more than seven decades of social and political change in Greece.
