Who is Deirdre McCloskey, the economist who changed her sex at age 55 and who specialized in a very particular field

Throughout history, the economy was not a space allowed for women. However, in recent decades there have been cases of figures who changed this paradigm and managed to leave their mark on world economic history.

Such is the case of Deirdre McCloskeyan economist who specialized in the rhetoric of persuasion and also dabbled in literary and social theories. However, at the age of 55 his life took an unexpected turn.

The story of Deirdre McCloskey, an economist with two lives

McCloskey’s story begins not as Deirdre, but as donald. The child was born on September 11, 1942in Michiganand grew up with a younger brother and sister. His father was a Harvard professor, and his mother was an opera singer. Donald had a childhood like any other boy.going to school and hanging out with friends.

Until age 11, while playing with her mother’s clothes, she had her first orgasm. From that moment and for 40 years, Donald dressed as a woman secretly from his loved ones. He maintained a double life for a long time; He married at 22, studied Economics at Harvard and attended the best universities in the world. He came to work with Milton Friedman and became closer to free market ideas.

started to do research on the rhetoric of persuasion in economics, literary theory and social theory. In his works he mainly criticized the official and modernist methodology inherited from the logical positivism of 1940, and proposed another model of economic progress.

Thus he came to 55with a few previous years where his characterization was increasingly evident in the eyes of his wife, who finally decided to divorce. Donald didn’t hesitate; He spent 90 thousand dollars on nose, cheekbones and breast operations, until reaching the sex change. Of course, he lost his entire family, including his children, but he became what he wanted to be since he was 13: Deirdre McCloskey.

Unlike what he thought would happen, did not lose her job as a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicagoand published Crossingsher memoirs about the transition from man to woman. Professionally, her academic work made her honorary doctorate from six universities and professor of economics, history, English and communications at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In addition, she was a professor of economics, philosophy and artistic and cultural studies at the Erasmus University Rotterdam between 2002 and 2006.

Its role in the economy transcends numbers; worked on articles related to historical research, the rhetoric of economics, rhetoric in the human sciences, methodology in economics, axiology, feminist economics, heterodox economics, the role of mathematics in economic analysis and the use of significance tests in economics. With 17 books published, McCloskey is one of the leading women economists today.