Conversing in time with overlooked, historical female proto-management theorists : a ficto-feminist polemic

Abstract

Feminist discourse exists at the margins of management and organizational studies and management history. Many figures and ideas have been overlooked by the largely gendered and limited scope of the development of field. This thesis introduces a new method, which fuses aspects of collective biography with the emic potential of autoethnography and rhizomatic capacity of fictocriticism to advance not only a new account of history in subject, but also in style of writing. Emerging from this feminist experiment is a method for feminist historical inquiry, called ficto-feminism. Ficto-feminism offers scholars the means to study lost female figures of significance, surface their lost lessons and contributions, uncover the discourses, which hide them from view, and rhetorically challenge the limited domain of current study with a defiantly feminist lens. The method is marked by several unique facets, including: (1) its potential to unlock agency for subject and writer; (2) reflexive and embodied/emic insights; (3) emotionality and resonance, (4) the opportunity to surface discourses at work over time; and (5) an alternative feminist strategy for studying the past. The power of ficto-feminism is that it has the capacity to reveal a more plausible and persuasive sense of an overlooked, understudied, and underappreciated female figure and reveal (or restore) her broader importance. This thesis endeavours to make a number of important contributions, including: (1) building on current research, which interrogates the role of management history in the neglect of women leaders and their accomplishments; (2) contributing to the development of a bridge between feminist theory and critical historiography; (3) exploring mechanisms to enact personal agency in subject and writer; (4) drawing the discipline’s attention to four proto-management theorists; and (5) introducing a new style of writing, which is narrative in style and inspired by fictional writing. The thesis features four literary non-fiction, fictitious conversations with historic female proto-management theorists from Canada and the United States: Frances Perkins (18801965), Hallie Flanagan (1890-1969), Madeleine Parent (1918-2012), and Viola Desmond (1914-1965). A variety of archival, biographical and media sources are combined with the author’s own sense-making and learnings to stitch together a believable, but fictional encounter. Guiding the study are five research questions: (1) why has she been excluded from management and organizational studies and management history? (2) Who was she as a proto-management theorist? (3) What are her lost lessons and contributions? What are the repercussions for leaving her out of account? (5) How can we study lost figures of significance?