On March 25, 1924, a decree aligned girls' secondary education with that of boys. This is how Léon Bérard, the Minister of Public Instruction, presented his law in his report to the President of the French Republic that same day: "In this reform, I have sought to meet the twofold wishes of families and the university: on the one hand, to preserve a system of secondary education for girls that has proved its worth over the past forty years; on the other, to make it easier for girls who so desire to receive an education identical to that provided in boys' secondary schools. This movement of girls toward the secondary education offered to boys, and toward its culmination, the baccalauréat, has gathered increasing momentum over the past twenty years; until now, however, our secondary schools have had to resort to makeshift measures to meet families' wishes."
Léon Bérard (1876–1960).
A little later, he added: "My ambition has been, on the one hand, to make classical culture accessible to an elite group of children and, on the other, to offer the great majority of girls in our secondary schools, whose only prospect is domestic life, the advanced education intended for them by the legislator of 1880. I hope that I have thus reconciled the reform of boys' secondary education with the established traditions of girls' secondary education."
**At the end of the 19th century**
