Betty Glad (September 27, 1927– August 2, 2010) was an American political scientist who specialized in the American presidency and American foreign policy.^[1] Her first work on Charles Evans Hughes^[2] led to a nomination for a Pulitzer Prize.^[3]

Education and career

Glad graduated from the University of Utah magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelors of Science, and went on to receive her PhD from the University of Chicago in 1962.^[3]

She began her teaching career at Mount Holyoke College and Brooklyn College, before becoming the first female Chair of Political Science at the University of Illinois. She would stay in Illinois until 1989, when she took up a post at the University of South Carolina. As such, Glad was one of the first women to earn a PhD in political science and then teach at a PhD-granting institution.^[3]

Glad's interests included the areas of political science and political psychology, and she was honored for her lifelong contributions in both subjects through the "Frank D. Goodnow Award" from the American Political Science Association and the "Harold Lasswell Award" from the International Society for Political Psychology.^[1]

Legacy

Betty Glad has left behind a written legacy about six presidents of the United States, and other world leaders such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and Nelson Mandela.^[1]

The "Betty Glad Legal Defense Fund" has been established in her name through the Women's Caucus for Political Science to help women battle discrimination and misconduct in the workplace.^[4]