Dorothea Erxleben

In 1747, due to economic constraints, the mother of nine children began to practice medicine in Quedlinburg without a degree, and became highly respected by the towns people.

Her inaugural dissertation was titled Concerning the Swift and Pleasant but for that Reason less than Full Cure of Illnesses, in which she argued against the prophylactic use of strong laxative, purgatives and perspiratory agents as it was practiced at that time.

She pointed out that doctors were too quick to prescribe unnecessary cures like opiates for illnesses that did not require them and made suggestions regarding their correct usage and dosage, as well as best interventions to promote menstruation and urination.

Dorothea Erxleben was born Dorothea Christiane Polycarp Leporin on 13 November 1715, in the small town of Quedlinburg, Germany to the town's progressive doctor, physician Christian Polycarp Leporin[1] and his wife Anna Sophia, née Meinecke [2]: 10  Her father home schooled his children and noticed her excelling at her schoolwork early on in life, as well as her general brightness.

When asked about his daughter's studies, Christian Polycarp Leporin was noted as saying that gifted women's talents are being wasted in the kitchen.

The Leporin family embraced the new ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, such as the values of Germany's Bürgertum, which led to Christian's belief that both of his children should receive the best education possible.

Later she attended the Gymnasium (Germany) where the rector gave her writings by Anna Maria van Schurman and Olympia Fulvia Morata.

Critics like Johann Rhetius, a pamphleteer, argued that women were by law forbidden to practice medicine and therefore earning a degree in such a field would be a waste of time.

Although Erxleben never publicly remarked on the controversy behind women's education, she began to write down her arguments and opinions on the topic, which were published in 1742 as a book titled A Thorough Inquiry into the Causes Preventing the Female Sex from Studying.

In 1742, at the age of 26, she married auxiliary priest Johann Christian Erxleben, the husband of her recently deceased cousin, who already had five children.

To pay off these debts, Erxleben began to practice medicine in Quedlinburg even without a degree, and became highly respected by the town.

House in Quedlinburg where Dorothea Erxleben lived and worked