UM professor Lee Badgett named second most powerful lesbian academic
By: Jasmine Renee Pina, Collegian Correspondent
Posted: 3/26/08
Female economist and University of Massachusetts professor Lee Badgett has been named by Curve Magazine one of the "20 Powerful Lesbian Academics."

Badgett said that being a formal female economist is different, but she got used to it after a while.

"It is hard to break in that world," she said. "Being a feminine economist is hard because there are many challenges for women in economics."

Badgett was listed as the second of the women listed in the article, "20 Powerful Lesbian Academics." She said it was odd to end up on the list if not used to the attention. However, she wants that type of influence, and said it was powerful for her to be a part of that because there aren't many enlightened professional feminists as a whole. She also said she wants there to be good data, ideas and reasoning for people to see.

Badgett thinks the article on lesbian academics portrays a place that values research on gay and lesbian orientations. She considers UMass to be an "open environment."

"The article is also important to UMass because it pushes envelopment in social policy and it said plenty about the good intellectual environment for students and faculty," she said.

She also believes that the purpose of the article was to offer a view on lesbian and gay studies and the work that's involved. She finds the people in the article to be very influential.

Badgett's attributes consist of putting certain issues in contact with concerns people have about gay marriage, laws and anything related to sexual orientation, and she has a strong interest in public policy that goes hand-in-hand with being serious about discrimination based on sexual orientation, race, gender and family.



A professor in the economics department at UMass, Badgett has also been visiting UCLA law school for the last two years. She had the opportunity to stay but chose to come back to UMass. She and her partner enjoy living here at UMass; she says she loves the people, the work she does, getting to know new faculty and the campus in general.

Badgett has also been named director of a new campus program - the institute for gay and lesbian strategic studies. She enjoys being director but it is not permanent because it is a three-year term.

Badgett said she loves the life of an economist but has other interests, including walking her dogs, gardening and playing the guitar and drums. She likes basketball, tennis and soccer.

"Unfortunately, I only get to do these things once every three weeks, except for walking my dogs, of course."