 Further, Erxleben identifies the widespread conviction that the attainment of learnedness is unsuitable for women as the result of prejudice, of which Erxleben distinguishes four principal types: that women are unsuited (in virtue of their natural capacities) to attain learnedness; that its attainment could not be useful for them; that learnedness could only be misused by women; and that women would only seek to attain learnedness to distinguish themselves from their peers. By way of rebutting these prejudices, Erxleben draws on an array of sources, including theological, philosophical, and medical authorities, and argues generally that whatever disparities might currently obtain between the apparent talents and achievements on the part of each sex are not the result of a difference in natural capacities but instead only evidence of the salutary effect of education on the human being (cf. Erxleben 1742: §71).