The birthplace of democracy, Greece gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821. The first constitution of the Kingdom of Greece was drafted in 1844 and stated, “Greeks are equal before the law.” However, it would be more than 100 years later that women gained the right to vote and stand as candidates in legislative and municipal elections. After obtaining full suffrage in 1952, women’s role in Greek society began to shift with higher female representation in the labor force, government, and post-secondary education. The country’s current constitution was drafted in 1975, and declares, “All Greeks are equal before the law. Greek men and women have equal rights and equal obligations.” The feminist movement of the 1970s and 80s along with Greece joining the European Union in 1981, helped to lay the foundation for the Family Law reform of 1983, which among other things guaranteed equality between spouses and made divorce easier to obtain. Greece ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1983, and three years later passed law 1609/1986, legalizing abortion. In 2006, law 3500/2006, was passed to combat domestic violence by criminalizing marital rape and intimate partner violence. Vassiliki Thanou-Chrisophilou became Greece’s first female prime minister in 2015, and five years later Katerina Sakellaropoulou was elected the country’s first female president. Despite these notable advancements toward gender parity, the country’s firmly established patriarchal culture has hindered women from attaining equal rights. According to the 2021 Global Gender Gap Report, which measures economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment, Greece ranks 98th out of 156 countries and has one of the lowest rankings of all EU countries. Women make up a mere 21 percent of parliament and according to a 2020 study by ActionAid Hellas, 85 percent of Greek women say they have experienced workplace sexual harassment. Moreover, in 2020 a General Secretariat for Demography and Family Policy and Gender Equality report showed that domestic violence offenses were more than three times greater than a decade prior with feminist groups estimating that femicide rates were at least one per month. Fortunately, women’s rights organizations such as the Greek League for Women’s Rights, the National Council of Greek Women, and Action for Women are helping to provide a network of shelters and counselling centers for victims of violence while holding the government to account on behalf of women across the country.

The first Olympic Games were held in Elis, Greece in 776 BC. The majority of women at that time were excluded from society and banned from competing, but in 396 BC Cynisca, who was a Spartan woman from the elite class was permitted to participate. She won the four-horse chariot race, becoming the first female Olympic champion. Cynisca won the event again in 392 BC, paving the way for other Spartan women of the elite class to pursue sports competition. In the second century AD, the Heraean Games, the all-female version of the Olympic Games, was formed. The Heraean Games, named for Greek goddess Hera, are the first documented sporting events where female athletes competed against one another. In 1906, tennis player Esmée Simirioti became the first Greek woman to participate in the modern Olympic Games winning gold in the women’s singles event. In 2000 sprinter, Eleni Samaritaki was the first woman from Greece to compete in the Paralympics where she won silver in the Women’s 200 m T36 and Women’s 400 m T36. The national water polo team has established itself as one of the best in the world after winning the 2011 World Championship, a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Games, and gold at the 2018 Europa Cup. One of the most decorated athletes in Greece’s history is 2021 GSMP alumna, Sofia Bekatorou. Sofia won gold in sailing at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and bronze in Beijing four years later. At the 2016 Rio Games, she was the first female flag bearer for a Greek Olympic team in modern history. In the professional sailing circuit, she has been the only female tactician and currently the only female Captain of the Star Sailors League Gold Cup.