The purpose of the article is to study the way the female teacher education was formed in late imperial Russia. The subject of the study is the specific element of this process in Kazan province, being a multi-ethnic region. The article analyses a number of issues, the ones related to the activities of the two Kazan gymnasia--Maryinskaya and Ksenyinskaya, generalizes both functioning conditions of these institutions and problems and achievements in quality preparation of teaching staff for schools of the Volga region. The study reveals the socio-cultural and pedagogical factors that determined the way the subsystem of female teachers training was formed. The dynamics of the education classes development demonstrated a certain degree of improvement of the educational process, extension of the academic term from one year to two years, increasing demand applied to students. The enhanced focus on practice-oriented training greatly affected development of professionally significant qualities of the future female teachers. As this educational activity was insufficiently regulated, that allowed for its planning and organization on a local level while taking into account particular regional conditions and needs. Such local "testing" of the way education classes function helped to build a well-coordinated subsystem of female teacher training in the country as well as obtain the required number of teachers within a short period. The results of the study can be applied while modernizing the practices of modern teacher training.