WOMEN

Many publications of female interest reflect the increasingly active role that women played in the society of Asia Minor. The establishment of girls’ schools, such as the «Homerion Girls’ School of Smyrna,» from the middle of the 19th century, exemplifies the special concern for female education.

The scope of women’s education was to edify a woman as a mother and wife. For example, moralizing publications, such as Jean Nicolas Bouilly’s Advice to My Daughter, was translated by the important female intellectual Evanthia N. Kairis and printed in Kydonies in 1820, while The Duties of a Greek Mother was printed in Amisos (Samsun) in the early 20th century.

On the other side of the spectrum, the Satirical Rod, or Folk Poetry about the Ill-mannered Women and Young Women of 1877 reveals the prejudices of the time.

The periodical press of the early 20th century offers glimpses of everyday life, as can be seen in the content of the bi-weekly magazine Cosmos in the 1910s. These magazines announce the new openness of women and their ever more active role in the community.