History of Russia: The exhibition "I want to study!", dedicated to the history of women's education in Russia, was opened in St. Petersburg

March 7, 2017 in the Museum "Diverse Petersburg" was opened the exhibition "I want to study!", dedicated to the history of the world's first women's polytechnic institute. This exhibition is not coincidentally timed to the popular holiday of March 8, the day when absolutely all women receive congratulations. Today, the international women's day is not associated with politics, but we should not forget that its appearance in Russia is connected with the "women's issue", which was very acute at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The higher educational institution that opened in St. Petersburg in 1906 under the name of the Women's Polytechnic Courses was an important milestone not only in the history of education, but also in the struggle of women for their rights. The purpose of the courses, as reported in the Charter, was "to see if women, on a par with men, are able to learn the secrets of technology". Now it's hard to believe, but at that time women were not accepted into higher educational institutions. Courses with a university program for women began to appear from the 1870s prepared by the beginning of the twentieth century of a galaxy of talented doctors and educators.

Polytechnic courses, located in house 68 on Zagorodny Prospekt, for the first time allowed women to get the title of engineer-architect, chemical engineer or electrical engineer. As soon as the opening of the courses was announced, in spite of the relatively high cost of training, about a thousand applications were submitted to the admission committee. By the competition of secondary school certificates, three hundred girls were selected for training.

Visitors of the exhibition will learn interesting details about the program of courses, they will see the "polytechnic" record book, as well as architectural projects of the students.

The exhibition runs till April 8.