The article is devoted to the analysis of the content of the "Oryol Diocesan Gazette" on the formation and development of the Oryol Women's Diocesan School and its contribution to the development of women's education in the province during the post-reform period. The relevance of the study is related to the need to examine the extent to which women's education in the Russian province was covered in the context of modernizing social relations, including among the clergy and non-privileged classes, in the pages of the diocesan press. The purpose of the study is to examine women's education on the example of the work of the Orel Women's Diocesan School through the use of materials from the Orel Diocesan Gazette. The subject is to highlight the features of the development of women's education and the training of teachers at the Orel Women's Diocesan School on the pages of the official periodical of the Orel Diocese. The chronological framework of the study coincides with the beginning of the liberal reforms of Alexander II's era until the publication's closure in 1918. The research methodology is based on a comprehensive analysis of published sources. Descriptive-narrative, problem-chronological, and systemic analysis methods, as well as the principle of historicism, were employed. The historical-comparative method allowed for examining changes in the teaching methods in diocesan women's schools, as well as the attitudes of the public, the state, and the Russian Orthodox Church towards the issue of women's education. The main source of the study was a selection of issues of the Orlovsky Diocesan Gazette, which focused on the role of the women's diocesan school in training teachers. The use of the official diocesan press to cover women's education is a novel approach for the diocese in question. Based on the sources, the authors of the publication made a number of conclusions. Firstly, the need to introduce women's education and the first steps towards its implementation were highlighted from the very beginning of the publication of the "Oryol Diocesan Gazette." Secondly, throughout the existence of this periodical, the topic of teacher training within the framework of the provincial women's diocesan school received close attention. Thirdly, the source provided information on the quality of teaching, the academic performance of students, the material and technical conditions, funding, and more, with a moderate degree of criticism. As a result, studying the activities of the women's diocesan school through the lens of the diocesan press provides a general understanding of women's education in the province.
Zhirov et al. (Sun,) studied this question.