The article deals with the emergence and evolvement of vocational education in the pre-revolutionary period in the Perm province. The reasons for its underdevelopment in the region are explored in which secondary educational institutions for women were functioning successfully. A comprehensive analysis of the data of the Ural archives and modern researchers’ works in this field has shown that the vast majority of special educational institutions for women in the Perm province were opened at the initiative of private individuals and local self-government bodies, which was typical for the whole country. As a rule, private initiatives in education were provided with charitable purposes and were represented (except for one medical school) by handcraft schools, and most of them were shelters or charity-schools for girls. Progressive people of the region realized the need for development of vocational education. The future of education depended on local needs defined by local governments. District councils were appointed to provide general education in the province, and they put major focus on opening of secondary schools. There, teachers were educated; and graduating in these schools was more prestigious than this in handcraft schools for women. Social standing of handcraft schools had declined by the end of the period under review because handwork had been integrated into educational programs of all female schools. Local governments of Perm and Yekaterinburg provinces supported medical education for women as well. At the same time, agricultural education was not widespread in the province in comparison with other regions of the country where it was actively developing. However, music education was quite advanced in the region, and a commercial college was opened there, where girls and boys studied together. The state of vocational education in region had not changed much for the beginning of the 20th century, even when the government was focused more on this segment of education: most women schools were preparing girls for the profession of a teacher because it was a better-off job and it was paid more than other jobs. In this way, female vocational education in the Perm province was developing rather poorly, and it was represented by a small number of educational institutions. An exception to this was various pedagogical institutions that trained teachers for primary schools. These institutions practically solved the problem of the shortage of personnel in this field.