From 1860s until the First world war, an important educational reform took place in several european cities, such as Lyon, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg or London : they innovated in providing to girls from uper working classes and lower middle classes a vocational education especially dedicated to commercial training. In Lyon in 1857, the pionner Elise Luquin founded « Higher classes for accountancy and commercial education for women », in 1875 in Paris, the town council created commercial classes for young women.

This new need for this women education was developing because commercial jobs were emerging in cities : public administrations, companies and shops needed more and more office workers, secretaries, bookeepers, saleswomen and men… Then, important industrial, commercial and administrative cities played an important role in developping new education opportunites for women.

The International congresses for technical education, which took place in many european cities from 1886 until 1939, used to bring together those advocators of vocational education for girls from all over Europe. They reported on what was happening in each european country, what could be done and should be done in order to promote this form of education. An european and urban networkdedicated in the implementation of vocational schools for girls was built. From the Bordeaux congress in 1886 until the Budapest one in 1913, women and men teachers or heads of schools had also a big debate, based on cities experiences in that matter, on women rights to have not only an access to vocational training, but for a deeper change, an equal access for girls and boys to all levels and forms of commercial education.

In this paper, I would like first to examine the role of european cities in promoting the implementation of vocational schools for girls. Second, I would emphasize on the building of an urban european network dedicated to vocational education for girls.

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