Emancipation in educational system: Formation of women's higher education in Russia

Abstract

The focus of the article is on one of the turning points in the education development in Russia of the late imperial period, i.e., the establishment of women's higher education in the second half of the 19th century. The researchers involved various sources, including periodicals, ego-documents, documents of management and record keeping obtained from regional archives, regulatory documents and directories for a systematic study of the formation process of women's higher education against the backdrop of the socio-political life of the Russian empire going through modernization. The combination of macro- and micro approaches in the context of the theory of modernization and gender-based history made it possible to consider the first women's higher courses as one of the most outstanding achievements made by the progressive public in the struggle for the equality of women as well as the development of women's education. The subject of the study was the women's higher courses, opened in the capital cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg) as well as provincial ones (Kazan and Kiev). The issues under study, being covered in the article, are the ones related to the socio-cultural aspects of the Russian movement for the right to obtain higher education and pedagogical profession up to the beginning of the 20th century. It is shown that Russian women in the struggle for equality with men initially demanded equal rights in the field of education in order to gain the opportunity to expand their professional activities and, consequently, to use their abilities for the benefit of society and achieve economic independence. Instability and constant attack on women's higher courses by the government, concerned about the growth of the revolutionary movement among women and inability to exercise their rights prevented students of women's higher courses from becoming full-fledged students, while the degree they got after graduating from the courses failed to provide them with equal civil and political rights with men. The results of the research can be applied in the practice of modernization of higher education and in studies on the history of Russian education.