Hedwig Dohm (née Schlesinger, later Schleh, 1831-1919) was one of the most important advocates for women’s rights in Germany. She wrote pamphlets, articles, novels, and short stories that promoted women’s civil rights, as well as the right to education and work. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Dohm also advocated for the rights of single women and unmarried mothers and called for a new morality. Dohm’s critique of the biologically based conception of “woman” prefigures twentieth-century critiques of biological essentialism.

Dohm regarded the idea of a fixed essence of “woman” as incoherent. This is because, she argued, there is no woman, but many women whose varying experiences, cultural backgrounds, and socio-economic situations must not be overlooked. Dohm’s philosophy was, in part, influenced by her complex relationship to Nietzsche’s thought. On the one hand, Nietzsche inspired Dohm’s thinking about the self as creative—a conception that formed the basis of her argument for women’s emancipation. On the other, Nietzsche’s misogynistic claims were troubling, and Dohm’s denunciation of anti-feminism was partially developed through a critique of Nietzsche’s statements about women. Dohm’s works merit further attention not merely as a rigorous Nietzsche commentator, but as a feminist philosopher whose views would resound throughout the following century.