Lillian Moller Gilbreth

Lillian Moller Gilbreth, was born in Oakland, California, on May 24, 1878, to a wealthy German American family. One of nine children, she was raised in a Victorian household, where her parents believed that a woman’s role was one of domesticity. Gilbreth however wanted a “strenuous life,” to pursue a higher education and a career. Despite her parents’ opposition, she graduated from UC Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in Literature. She married engineer Frank Gilbreth in 1904 and they worked together as consultants in scientific management.

In the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, they were pioneers of  ‘time and motion study,’ analyzing ways to make industrial processes, office tasks, and housework more efficient, reduce human error, and enhance the safety and satisfaction of workers. The Gilbreths used a motion-picture camera to analyze human actions, which they divided into 17 motions called ‘therbligs.’ What distinguished the Gilbreths from other professionals in scientific management was Lillian’s integration of human psychology into industrial engineering, known as industrial psychology. In 1915, Lillian Gilbreth earned a Ph.D. in Psychology from Brown University, and finally started being credited as co-author, with her husband, of their research reports.

The Gilbreths were proponents of eugenics, an ideology supporting the racial dominance of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants over non-white groups. Believing that white educated families should reproduce to keep America ‘pure,’ the Gilbreths applied the theory to themselves and raised 12 children — immortalized in the 1948 fictionalized memoir, Cheaper By The Dozen.

After Frank died, Lillian Gilbreth reinvented her career as a solo consultant, focusing on consumer clients such as Macy’s, Johnson & Johnson, Sears, and General Electric, among others. Gilbreth also focused on making domestic work more efficient, transformed the design of kitchens, and invented numerous appliances such as the foot pedal trash can. She published several books about domestic life including: The Home-maker and Her Job (1927) and Living With Our Children (1928).

In 1935, Gilbreth became the first female engineering professor at Purdue University, where she taught industrial psychology, industrial engineering, and home economics. In 1965, she was the first woman elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and the following year was the first woman to receive the Hoover Medal for distinguished public service by an engineer. Gilbreth also worked as a government advisor for U.S. presidents Hoover, Roosevelt, and Truman, and was active in volunteer organizations such as the Girl Scouts. Lillian Gilbreth died on January 2, 1972 in Phoenix, Arizona.