Los Angeles, Sunday
For 25 years, Donald McCloskey enjoyed a reputation for arcane, and learned controversy among economic historians. Before he became co-editor of the leading textbook of British economic history, he brought forceful new ideas to the study of mediaeval agriculture.
In his 1985 book, "The Rhetoric of Economics", he chastised fellow economists for submerging human behavior in mathematical formulas. And Professor McCloskey, 53, went out of his way to foster the emerging field of feminist economics, which holds that existing theory is too much based on the male competitive urge.
Nothing, however, quite prepared US colleagues for his appearance at the annual convention of the American Economic Association last month -- in a red dress and a wig.
Ms Deirdre McCloskey, as she now wishes to be called, insisted that she was dressed very conservatively, in the circumstances. But she also admitted to planting a kiss on the cheek of an unsuspecting male friend in the convention hall's bar.
The professor of economics and history at the University of Iowa since 1980, now a visiting professor at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Deirdre/Donald McCloskey has written and edited 200 articles and 20 books, including "An Economic History of Britain, 1700 to the Present". Last November, he divorced his wife of 30 years, underwent cosmetic surgery, and changed his name to Deirdre, which is Irish and means "wanderer".
"This isn't Mardi Gras, this isn't a costume thing, to fool people or trick people or startle people," Ms McCloskey said. "This is just me being a woman."
Iowa is known as the home turf of the religious right, but the University of Iowa has not blinked, simply describing Ms McCloskey as "a superb faculty member". Prominent female economists have moved rapidly to embrace her. One group threw a coming out party last year with pink "It's a Girl" balloons.
"The Age" (Melbourne, Australia), 19 February 1996.