This article explores the question of imperial educational reform through the lens of women teachers. It highlights the role of women who participated in what was termed the "civilising mission" in the nineteenth century, emphasising the diversity of their engagements. Through a focus on French women and localised case studies, the article highlights the initiative of socialist, Catholic, and Jewish women teachers who set up schools in Northern and sub-Saharan Africa or in the Middle East. The individual case studies examine the place of manual pedagogies established within schools and their relationship to local work settings, as well as the technologies of monitorial schooling that emerged in many colonial schools. Through a focus on institutions or learning situations associated with poor pupils, the article considers how female imperial reformers sought to position indigenous women in a wage economy through the teaching of vocational skills or through work as monitors or teachers.