“I’ve Done My Part: Why Gender Diversity Promotes Prosperity and Peace” was given by Professor Deirdre McCloskey, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Economics and Economic History at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

This event was held in-person at Riddel Hall, Belfast on Wednesday 12 October 2022 from 5.30pm.

About our Speaker

The 2022 Mary McAleese Diversity Lecture was given by Professor Deirdre McCloskey. Deirdre McCloskey is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Economics and Economic History at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Trained at Harvard as an economist, she has written twenty four books and some four hundred academic and popular articles on economic history, rhetoric, philosophy, statistical theory, economic theory, feminism, queer studies, liberalism, ethics and law. Her best known works include her trilogy The Bourgeois Era (2006, 2010, 2016); The Rhetoric of Economics (1985); and The Cult of Statistical Significance (with Stephen Ziliak, 2008).

Deirdre describes herself as a literary, quantitative, postmodern, free-market, progressive-Episcopalian, ex Marxoid, Midwestern woman who was once a man. Crossing: A Memoir (1999; 2019 with an Afterword) is a moving and sensitive account of Deirdre’s transition. Deirdre is an advocate of robust discussion and is a strong supporter of academic freedom. She has ancestral roots in Northern Ireland and is an honorary professor in Queen’s Management School.

About the Lecture Series

In June 2019, former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, formally launched the Queen’s Management School Annual Mary McAleese Diversity Lecture Series during an event at the University. The new lecture series is part of Queen’s Management School’s mission to promote greater equality and diversity in the workplace, particularly with regards to ensuring equality of opportunity and respect for diversity across the University and the wider community.

About Mary McAleese

Mary McAleese, who is a Professor of Children, Law and Religion at the University of Glasgow, discussed female empowerment, same sex marriage, misogyny and homophobia, during the course of the event.

A barrister by profession, she graduated from the School of Law at Queen’s in 1973 and was called to the Northern Ireland Bar in 1974. She was appointed Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College Dublin the following year and later took up the position of Director of the Institute of Legal Studies at Queen’s in 1987. Professor McAleese became the University’s first female Pro-Vice-Chancellor in 1994.

Mary McAleese, was elected the 8th President of Ireland in November 1997, succeeding Mary Robinson. She is the second female president of Ireland, the first president from Northern Ireland and served as for two terms until November 2011.