One of the main goals of the women's emancipation movement was to continue girls' education. After graduating from primary and secondary school, girls had few options for furthering their professional and theoretical knowledge, except for the possibility of studying at a women's teacher training college (from 1869). There were several reasons for this. Not every woman wanted to sacrifice her private life for a career as a teacher, which was associated with unpopular celibacy. At the same time, not every family could afford private tuition for financial reasons. Finally, it must be said that there were also serious structural obstacles – girls could not study at secondary schools and universities, which were only accessible to boys.
Women's associations in individual cities began to respond to this situation by establishing so-called industrial schools, which offered girls vocational training – most often in manufacturing, laundry, and childcare. These vocational schools for girls found more favourable conditions first in large cities, in Brno as early as the 1870s. At the beginning of the 20th century, the number of secondary schools for girls increased, and so-called lyceums were added. At the lyceum, it was possible to obtain a high school diploma, and the curriculum was much broader, but graduates were mainly prepared for work in the postal and telephone services and in pharmacy. Therefore, these schools were not equivalent to grammar schools, which remained closed to girls (from 1872, they could only study there as private individuals).
The first girls' grammar school in Brno
The oldest girls' grammar school in the Czech lands and in the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire was Minerva in Prague, which opened in 1890, but in Brno we had to wait a few more years. The fact that there was not a single general secondary school for girls in Moravia (and Silesia) prompted the Moravian Women Teachers' Association, led by activist Zdeňka Wiedermannová-Motyčková, to embark on the arduous journey to open the first girls' grammar school in Moravia. It was 1902, and with the considerable support of Alfons Stránský, chairman of the People's Party in Moravia, and Tomáš G. Masaryk, a massive campaign was launched in the newspapers, the association published a series of educational papers, and organized numerous promotional lectures. After the association's request to allow girls to study at Moravian secondary schools was rejected by the authorities in 1906, a delegation was sent to Vienna the following year to meet with the Minister of Education with the aim of introducing co-education for girls and boys at existing grammar schools. Although this was partially achieved, in 1907, due to the operational problems involved, the Moravian Women Teachers' Association began negotiations to establish the first independent girls' secondary school. It was opened in the same year in Valašské Meziříčí under the name Girls' Academy (Dívčí akademie). The remoteness of the institution from the provincial capital and problems with its financing soon showed that it would be necessary to finance another girls' grammar school in Brno.
The local institution saw the light of day in the 1908/1909 school year.
Until 1920, it operated in very modest conditions in rented premises in the Kounic Palace, and during construction work it also moved to Besední dům, the trade council building on Veveří Street, and the institute for the blind on Žerotínovo náměstí. In 1920, when the state took over its operation, it moved to the building of today's German and Mendel Grammar School (Německé a Mendlovo gymnázium) on Mendlovo náměstí, where it operated until its closure in 1949. In 1925, on the 10th anniversary of the death of the school's founder, Zdenka Wiedermannová-Motyčková, a memorial plaque to this important woman was installed inside the building. The plaque was destroyed during the Nazi occupation and restored in 1968. In the interwar period, there were four girls' grammar schools in Brno. The Girls' Academy Grammar School, the reformed grammar school on Jaselská Street (originally the Vesna Girls' Lyceum), the German Municipal Girls' Grammar School on Husova Street, and the Convent Girls' Grammar School on Lerchova Street, which operated in the 1930s and 1940s. Girls' grammar schools ceased to exist as a result of educational reforms after 1948.
Hana Krutílková, Moravské zemské muzeum
