A “Novel” Discovery: Exploring Women’s Literary Fiction for Use in Management and Leadership Education

We contribute to management and leadership education research by arguing that women’s literary fiction has been largely ignored in both scholarship and practice. We provide a systematic approach to selecting and reading women’s fiction for the purpose of introducing management educators to the vast untapped potential of women’s fiction, which is suited to addressing a wide range of issues related to women’s leadership experiences. We show how the 18 texts presented in this study were selected and briefly introduce the themes they explore. One text, the play, Welcome to Thebes, is analyzed to illustrate how the text provides opportunities for developing more gender-aware leadership learners. We also explore leadership learning opportunities that arise from reading fiction in groups.