Avra Theodoropoulou
| Avra Theodoropoulou | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Avra Drakopoulou 3 November 1880 Edirne, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | 20 January 1963 (aged 82) Athens, Greece |
| Nationality | Greek |
| Occupation | music critic, pianist, women's rights activist |
| Years active | 1900–1958 |
Avra Theodoropoulou (Greek: Αύρα Θεοδωροπούλου; 3 November 1880 – 20 January 1963) was a Greek music teacher, pianist, suffragist and women's rights activist. She founded the League for Women's Rights in 1920 and served as its chairperson from 1920 to 1957. She was married to the poet Agis Theros.
Avra Drakopoulou was born on 3 November 1880 in Edirne, Ottoman Empire, to Eleni and Aristomenis Drakopoulos, who was a consul official for Greece in Turkey. Her sister, Theone Drakopoulou, was a well-known poet and actress. In their childhood, the family was posted in Turkey and then Crete before settling in Athens. Completing high school, Drakopoulou learned English, French and German and became involved as a volunteer nurse during the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. In 1900, she graduated from the Athens Conservatoire and that same year she met Spyros Theodoropoulos, who would become a politician and writer, using the pen name Agis Theros. They would marry in 1906, after overcoming her father's objections to the match.
Theodoropoulous received the Andreas and Iphigeneia Syngros Silver Medal for her piano skill in 1910 and was appointed to teach music history and pianoforte at the conservatoire. During this early period, seeking different methods to express herself, Theodoropoulous wrote at least two plays. One, entitled Chance or will (Greek: Τύχην ή θέλησιν) (1906), which was not performed as it was semi-autobiographical, and Sparks dying out (Greek: Σπίθες που σβήνουν), which was performed in 1912 by Marika Kotopouli. In 1911, she became involved with establishing the Sunday School for Working Women (Greek: Κυριακάτικο Σχολείο Εργατριών) (KSE), an organization which demanded for the first time that education for women was a right. During the Balkan War (1912–13), she returned to volunteering as a nurse and was honored for her participation with the Medal of the Hellenic Red Cross, the Queen Olga Medal, the Medal of the Balkan War and the Medal of the Greco-Bulgarian War.
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