Straight Shooter: Indian American Professor Sues Babson College for Alleged Gender and Racial Discrimination
- Lakshmi Balachandra, an associate professor of entrepreneurship at the business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, accused the college of favoring white and male faculty.
Lakshmi Balachandra, an associate professor of entrepreneurship at Babson College is suing the business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, of alleged gender and racial discrimination, the Boston Globe reported. The Indian American is currently on leave for a fellowship at the National Science Foundation. She is seeking unspecified damages.
In the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Boston last week, Balachandra accused the college of favoring âwhite and male faculty,â adding that it âpredominantly reserves awards and privileges for them,â according to the Boston Globe. She said she âlost career opportunities and faced economic losses, emotional distress, and harm to her reputation because of mistreatment and administratorsâ failure to investigate her concerns,â the report added.
She claims in the Feb. 27 complaint that Andrew Corbett, a professor and former chair of the collegeâs entrepreneurship division, discriminated against her. Corbett oversaw âteaching assignments, class scheduling, and annual reviews,â the Globe reported, adding that âdespite her requests to teach electives, he only allowed her to teach required courses in entrepreneurship.â She also alleged in the complaint that âCorbett often lost his temper with her and other female colleagues,â the report said.
The lawsuit mentioned that Balachandra had taught such classes previously at MIT Sloan School of Management and Harvard Business School, the report added. Additionally, she said in the lawsuit that âdespite her research record, expressed interest, and service to the college, she was denied numerous leadership positions and opportunities for more time to conduct research and write.â
Her attorney, Monica Shah, told the Globe that her client had ârepeatedly raised formal concerns at Babson and also filed a charge of discrimination with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.â
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Babson, told the Globe that the college is aware of the legal complaint. âThe college is home to a diverse global community where equity and inclusion are valued and incorporated across every facet of campus, and where discrimination of any kind is not tolerated,â the spokesperson said in a statement sent to the daily. âBabson takes concerns or complaints seriously and has well-established protocols and resources in place to thoroughly investigate and address them. We look forward to addressing this through the legal process.â
Balachandra has previously spoken about the bias and discrimination she faced at Babson. In September 2021, she told The Boston Globe reporter Katie Johnston that the way her students perceived her was obvious during the pandemic when students began complaining about her. She said she realized that âthe students already have the ‘college kids think they know everything bias,â and they really donât want to be challenged by a woman of color.â
She continued: âWith Indian women, thereâs this expectation that weâre subservient and quiet and obedient,â she told Johnston. âBut Iâm a pretty straight shooter. I donât mince words. I think it usually isnât a problem because I try not to say things in an angry tone. But also feel people are surprised at how outspoken I am because it goes against their expectations of Indian women.â
She said she knows sheâs âa good teacher,â having taught at Harvard Business School and MIT, âwith great reviews.â But when she came to Babson, she started âgetting mediocre, even bad reviews.â She said sheâs become âacutely aware of how students perceive me when I walk into a room, compared to the white men next to me.â
She recalled being âthe only Indian girl in Needhamâ growing up. âWhen you grow up being the âonly,â you want to fit in,â she said. âI felt the need to squelch differences as opposed to celebrating them. Indian parents also put a lot of pressure on their kids. You have to be nice. Anything you do that goes wrong, itâs assumed to be your fault. And I carry that with me to this day.â
It was around that time that she âstarted thinking about the importance of broader representation in town government,â and ran or the townâs Select Board. Marcus Nelson, a Black man, also was running, and we won the two open seats in April. We are the first people of color ever elected in a town established in 1711.
She was a co-author of the Diana Report, 2014, âthe first comprehensive analysis of venture capital investments in women entrepreneurs since 1999,â according to her Babson profile. Most recently, she was the lead author on a study with Bank of America âexploring the gender bias experienced by successful women entrepreneurs who have achieved over $5 million in revenue,â the profile said. The paper, entitled âBeyond the Bucks: Growth Strategies of Successful Women Entrepreneurs,â was published in October 2019 the profile said, and âreceived significant media attention for the groundbreaking findings of the study.â
Her research has been published in several leading journals, and her work has received a wide press coverage. She is the founder of the Women’s Venture Capital Network, the first network of its kind in the country where she organized, created and managed numerous networking events and educational panels for women professionals in the industry.
Before joining Babson College, she was a visiting assistant professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Northeastern University in Boston, and a lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Harvard Extension School. She has also taught at Boston College and UCSD Rady’s School of Management.