Historical Female Management Theorists: Frances Perkins, Hallie Flanagan, Madeleine Parent, Viola Desmond

Persuasively arguing for the inclusion of overlooked female figures whilst simultaneously bridging feminist theory and critical historiography, Historical Female Management Theorists features four literary non-fiction, fictitious conversations with historic female proto-management theorists from Canada and the United States: Frances Perkins (1880-1965), Hallie Flanagan (1890-1969), Madeleine Parent (1918-2012), and Viola Desmond (1914-1965).

These women have been noted for their contributions in various fields, however their accomplishments and lessons have largely been overlooked by management and organizational history. A variety of archival, biographical and media sources are combined with Williams’s own sense-making and learnings to stitch together a believable, but fictional encounter, introducing a method for feminist historical inquiry - ficto-feminism. A blend of auto-ethnography, collective biography and fictocriticism, this new method explores mechanisms to enact personal agency in subject and writer, featuring a novel narrative, storytelling style inspired by fictional writing.

Historical Female Management Theorists is essential reading for both feminist scholars and management historians.

Kristin S. Williams, PhD, is the Managing Director and Principal Researcher at the Prudentia Institute, with a mission to support the inclusive development and empowerment of youth through research and knowledge mobilization. She is the Historian in Residence with the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University and holds a Visiting Researcher appointment at the University of Eastern Finland. Kristin serves on the Executive of the Division of Critical Management Studies at the Academy of Management and is an Associate Editor at the journals of Culture and Organization and Qualitative Research in Organization and Management.