There is a historiographical introduction to the study of the history of nunneries and women’s monasticism as an urgent and promising topic that requires the consideration of the scientific experience accumulated by domestic and foreign science. The identification and comprehension of works that make it possible to characterize the historical perspective of female monasticism is realized in the form of a sum of formulations that reveal the logic of the scientific process and generate humanitarian knowledge about the subject under study. The main approaches to understanding the problems associated with the social dynamics of the female communal religious movement are identified. The thematic-chronological systematization of historical knowledge about the formation, functioning, patterns of development, conditions of existence, as well as on the gender specifics and individual representatives of Russian monasticism was carried out on the basis of a representative sample of studies from the early 19th to the 21st century. On the basis of the analysis carried out, an assessment is made of the state and prospects of studying Russian Orthodox female monasticism as part of Russia’s social history. The need to take into account the macro and micro factors affecting the process of monastic construction, the way of monastic life and the formation of types of female monastic ministry is proved. The dependence of female monasticism on the masculine, on the institution of eldership, is revealed. The close dependence of the characteristics of monasticism as a social group on the methods of consolidation, social adaptation, etc., is substantiated.