Dorothea Christiane Leporin

Dorothea Christiane Leporin was born on November 13, 1715, in the small town of Quedlinburg, Germany, to the town’s progressive doctor, physician Christian Polycarp Leporin. Christian was often noted for saying that gifted women’s talents were being wasted in the kitchen. He also believed that both of his children should receive the best education possible. When he noticed that Dorothea excelled at her schoolwork, he arranged for her to be tutored in Latin, math, and the sciences alongside her brother Tobias. Tobias planned to study medicine at the University of Halle, and so Dorothea followed him.

At the time, women had to receive special permission to attend university, so Dorothea’s father petitioned King Frederick the Great of Prussia to allow her entry into the University of Halle. Frederick approved this request in April of 1741.

Dorothea’s admission to the university was both criticised and admired. Critics argued that women were by law forbidden to practise medicine, and therefore earning a degree in such a field would be a waste of time. Although Dorothea never publicly remarked on the controversy behind women’s education, she began to write her arguments and opinions on the topic down on paper, which were later published in 1742 as a book. Her book argued for Germany to take advantage of the talents of half of its population, while her father, Christian, wrote a foreword that described the need for reform in Germany’s universities and how the admission of women would spur this long-needed change.

Despite her admittance, Dorothea decided to postpone her university studies at the age of 26 to marry Johann Christian Erxleben. Their marriage was a generally happy one, and Dorothea went on to have four children with Johann over the next few years. Despite being busy at home for years managing her children, Dorothea was able to continue her medical studies at a slower pace.

In 1747, with her husband’s health failing and the death of her father, Dorothea found herself in serious debt. To pay off these debts, Dorothea began to practise medicine in Quedlinburg even without a degree and became highly respected by the town. However, some of the local physicians felt their monopoly on medicine was being threatened and filed a law suit against Dorothea. The case rose through the courts and was brought before Frederick the Great in January 1754. The king ruled that she would have to pass an examination and submit a dissertation at the University of Halle, and with the support of the university's rector, Dorothea did just that.

In her dissertation, she argued that doctors were too quick to prescribe unnecessary cures and that doctors intervened too quickly to prescribe medicines like opiates for illnesses that did not require them. She made several suggestions regarding the proper use of purgatives, the best interventions to promote menstruation and urination, as well as the correct usage and dosage of opiates. Her dissertation quickly spread throughout Germany, particularly among women with health problems, and she even translated the dissertation from Latin into German to make it more accessible to the poor.

On June 12, 1754, Dorothea Erxleben received her degree, becoming the first woman in Germany to do so. She spent the rest of her life practising medicine in her hometown of Quedlinburg. She died on June 13, 1762.

Contemporary portrait of Dorothea (public domain)

Sources:

SCIENCE HAS NO GENDER: The History of Women in Science, by Sethanne Howard, p. 1–15

Gender, Religion, and Medicine in Enlightenment Germany: Dorothea Christiane Leporin's Treatise on the Education of, by Elisabeth Poeter, p. 99–119

The Anatomy of Difference: Race and Sex in Eighteenth-Century Science, by Londa Schiebinger, p. 387–405