November 13 – Happy Birthday, Dorothea Erxleben!

nPostednNovember 13, 2013

Waynback in the first half of the 1700s, Dorothea Erxleben fought fornwomen’s rights to attend universities.

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nIt’snsad to think that in some places of the world, the struggle for girlsnand women to have equal access to schools and universities continues.nHowever, we can look on the positive side: in many, many places thenworld over, the rights Erxleben fought for have been realized!

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nErxlebennwas born in Germany on this date in 1715. Her father taught hernmedicine while she was still quite young, and in 1742 she wrote antract arguing that women should be allowed to attend university. Shenwas given special permission to attend the University of Halle bynFrederick the Great, and in 1754 Erxleben became the first femalenmedical doctor in Germany.

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nNowadays,nabout one third of the medical doctors in the world are women, andnabout half of the medical school graduates in the U.S. are now womenn(up from a third in 1990)—which probably means that 20 years fromnnow about half the practicing doctors will be women. n

nThentables have turned…

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nInterestinglynenough, there are more women in American colleges now than there arenmen. Most colleges have something like a 55-45 split in favor ofnwomen, but some have more like a 60-40 split, and some have annamazing 70-30 split! n

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nFornmore than a decade, universities and journalists and others have beennscratching their heads trying to think of ways to lure young men intoncollege!

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nAlsonon this date:

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