The Lucy Flower Technical High School was the only Chicago public high school exclusively for girls. Its founders' goal was to train young women both for sex-segregated employment and for their "primary function" as housewives. The form this aim took in practice and the response to the school over time by Chicago's young women offer suggestive insights into the following: the realities of vocational education for women in the United States; the value of single-sex in contrast to coeducational education for women; and the interaction of the schemes of educators with the needs and wishes of women students. Although boys' vocational education has been criticized for in effect keeping the sons of workers in the working class, at Lucy Flower the hidden agenda of limitation by class was subordinate to the overt agenda of limitation by gender. There was never any question that the school meant to prepare women for the limited roles society allotted them. Yet, this intention was not carried out as a matter of simple imposition. As an open enrollment institution, the school was able to pursue its vision of women's destiny only to the extent that a readily available clientele shared its philosophy. Thus, the composition of its student body followed the physical and cultural movements of groups in Chicago, vividly reflecting attitudes toward schooling and work on the part of young women and their families. (Author/KC)