Too often, depictions of women's rise in corporate America leave
out the first generation of breakthrough women entrepreneurs. Here,
Edith Sparks restores the careers of three pioneering
businesswomen--Tillie Lewis (founder of Flotill Products), Olive
Ann Beech (cofounder of Beech Aircraft), and Margaret Rudkin
(founder of Pepperidge Farm)--who started their own manufacturing
companies in the 1930s, sold them to major corporations in the
1960s and 1970s, and became members of their corporate boards.
These leaders began their ascent to the highest echelons of the
business world before women had widespread access to higher
education and before there were federal programs to incentivize
women entrepreneurs or laws to prohibit credit discrimination. In
telling their stories, Sparks demonstrates how these women at once
rejected cultural prescriptions and manipulated them to their
advantage, leveraged familial connections, and seized government
opportunities, all while advocating for themselves in business
environments that were not designed for women, let alone for women
leaders.
By contextualizing the careers of these hugely successful yet
largely forgotten entrepreneurs, Sparks adds a vital dimension to
the history of twentieth-century corporate America and provides a
powerful lesson on what it took for women to succeed in this
male-dominated business world.