Frances Woolley is a professor of economics at Carleton University, Canada and has been teaching there since 1990. She holds a B.A. from Simon Fraser University, a M.A. from Queen's University, and a Ph.D. from London School of Economics under the supervision of Tony Atkinson. Her thesis was titled Economic models of family decision-making, with applications to intergenerational justice. Her research includes fields such as public finance, labour economics, as well as family and public policies. She has served as Secretary Treasurer and President of the Canadian Economics Association and co-editor of Review of Economics of the Household, on the editorial boards of Feminist Economics and the Journal of Socio-Economics, and as the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Public Affairs at Carleton University.

Frances Woolley started as a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Economics at University of British Columbia from 1989 to 1990. In 1997, she worked as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Simon Fraser University. From 1990 to 1998, she worked in Carleton University as Assistant Professor, where she later became Associate Professor from 1998 to 2003 and Professor starting 2003. From 2013 to 2016, she also served as the Associate Dean of Curriculum and Planning at Faculty of Public Affairs at Carleton University.