The reformation of educational institutions was one of the earliest attempts of the Ottoman Empire’s modernization started in the late eighteenth century. This was a turning point for the Ottoman women as well: becoming more visible in the public sphere, they were soon accepted as a social class by the state which resulted in the inauguration of modern public schooling for girls in 1859. This paper aims to explore women’s education in Turkey from the late Ottoman and early Republican periods. In the first part, I will briefly discuss the curriculum of the girls’ secondary schools (rüşdiyyes) in comparison with the boys’ rüşdiyyes through an analysis of curricula and women’s magazines of the period. I argue that disciplinization of the Ottoman women is seen as a priority and women’s education is perceived as a way of raising a moral generation, as well as keeping the family institution alive. In the second part, I will present some preliminary insights from a current project on Turkey’s teacher training colleges from their inauguration in 1870 until the end of the single-party-state period in 1945 to trace the politics of women’s education throughout the rapid Westernisation and nation-building process of the country.