Lillian Evelyn Moller Gilbreth (May 24, 1878 – January 2, 1972) was an American psychologist, industrial engineer, consultant, and educator who was an early pioneer in applying psychology to time-and-motion studies.
Both books were later made into feature films. == Early life and education == Lillie Evelyn Moller was born in Oakland, California, on May 24, 1878, to Annie () and William Moller, a builder's supply merchant.
She was elected vice president of her senior class at Oakland High School and graduated with exemplary grades in May 1896. Although Moller wanted to go to college, her father was opposed to such education for his daughters.
In August 1896 Moller was one of 300 entering students.
On May 16, 1900, she graduated from the university and became the first woman to speak at a University of California commencement.
Back in California, she returned to the University of California in August 1901 to work toward a master's degree in literature.
Under the supervision of Gayley, she wrote a thesis on Ben Jonson's play Bartholomew Fair, and received her master's degree in the spring of 1902. Moller began studies for a Ph.D.
at the University of California, but took time off to travel through Europe in the spring of 1903.
The topic of her dissertation was efficient teaching methods and titled Some Aspects of Eliminating Waste in Teaching. == Marriage and family == Lillian Moller met Frank Bunker Gilbreth in June 1903 in Boston, Massachusetts, en route to Europe with her chaperone, who was Frank's cousin.
Following her marriage to Frank Bunker Gilbreth in 1904 and relocation to New York, she completed a dissertation for a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1911, but was not awarded the degree due to her noncompliance with residency requirements for doctoral candidates.
He had apprenticed in several building trades in the East and established a contracting business with offices in Boston, New York, and London. The couple married on October 19, 1904, in Oakland, California, and settled in New York.
Following her marriage to Frank Bunker Gilbreth in 1904 and relocation to New York, she completed a dissertation for a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1911, but was not awarded the degree due to her noncompliance with residency requirements for doctoral candidates.
(Gilbreth introduced the concept of using psychology to study management at the Dartmouth College Conference on Scientific Management in 1911.) In addition to jointly running Gilbreth, Incorporated, their business and engineering consulting firm, Lillian and Frank wrote numerous publications as sole authors, as well as co-authoring multiple books and more than fifty papers on a variety of scientific topics.
One died young in 1912; one was still-born in 1915; and eleven of them lived to adulthood, including Ernestine Gilbreth, Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr., and Robert Moller Gilbreth. After Frank died of a heart attack on June 14, 1924, Lillian never remarried. == Career == For more than forty years, Gilbreth's career combined psychology with the study of scientific management and engineering.
As an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, she took enough education courses to earn a teacher's certificate, and her doctoral dissertation at Brown University was on applying the principles of scientific management to secondary school teaching. While residing in Providence, Rhode Island, Gilbreth and her husband taught free, two-week-long summer schools in scientific management from 1913 to 1916.
The dissertation was published as The Psychology of Management: The Function of the Mind in Determining, Teaching and Installing Methods of Least Waste in 1914. After the Gilbreths relocated their family to Providence, Rhode Island, Lillian enrolled at Brown University.
in applied psychology in 1915, which made her the first of the pioneers of industrial management to have a doctorate.
One died young in 1912; one was still-born in 1915; and eleven of them lived to adulthood, including Ernestine Gilbreth, Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr., and Robert Moller Gilbreth. After Frank died of a heart attack on June 14, 1924, Lillian never remarried. == Career == For more than forty years, Gilbreth's career combined psychology with the study of scientific management and engineering.
As an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, she took enough education courses to earn a teacher's certificate, and her doctoral dissertation at Brown University was on applying the principles of scientific management to secondary school teaching. While residing in Providence, Rhode Island, Gilbreth and her husband taught free, two-week-long summer schools in scientific management from 1913 to 1916.
In the late 1920s, she collaborated with Mary E.
One died young in 1912; one was still-born in 1915; and eleven of them lived to adulthood, including Ernestine Gilbreth, Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr., and Robert Moller Gilbreth. After Frank died of a heart attack on June 14, 1924, Lillian never remarried. == Career == For more than forty years, Gilbreth's career combined psychology with the study of scientific management and engineering.
She continued to lead the company for decades after his death in 1924.
In addition, the Gilbreths applied a human approach to scientific management to develop innovations in workplace efficiency, such as improved lighting and regular breaks, as well as ideas for workplace psychological well-being, such as suggestion boxes and free books. === Domestic management and home economics === Gilbreth collaborated with her husband until his death in 1924.
The Gilbreths also discussed teaching the Gilbreth System of time-and-motion study to members of industry, but it was not until after her husband's death in 1924 that she created a formal motion-study course.
Gilbreth presented this idea at the First Prague International Management Congress in Prague in July 1924.
Her first course began in January 1925.
In 1925 she succeeded her husband as a visiting lecturer at Purdue, where he had been delivering annual lectures.
Solutions included changing light fixtures to reduce eye fatigue and eliminating duplicate recordings of sales checks. In 1926, when Johnson & Johnson hired her as a consultant to do marketing research on sanitary napkins, Gilbreth and the firm benefited in three ways.
It was unveiled in 1929 at a Women's Exposition. She is also credited with the invention of the foot-pedal trash can, adding shelves to the inside of refrigerator doors (including the butter tray and egg keeper), and wall-light switches, all now standard.
In 1930, under the Hoover administration, she headed the women's section of the President's Emergency Committee for Employment and helped to gain the cooperation of women's groups for reducing unemployment.
She ran a total of seven motion study courses out of her home in Montclair, New Jersey until 1930. To earn additional income to support her large family, Gilbreth delivered numerous addresses to business and industry gatherings, as well as on college and university campuses such as Harvard, Yale, Colgate, the University of Michigan, MIT, Stanford, and Purdue University.
In addition to her work with Johnson & Johnson, Gilbreth was instrumental in the design of a desk in cooperation with IBM for display at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933 === Volunteer work and government service === Gilbreth continued her private consulting practice while serving as a volunteer and an adviser to several government agencies and nonprofit groups.
In 1935 she became a professor of management at Purdue's School of Mechanical Engineering, and the country's first female engineering professor.
She was described in the 1940s as "a genius in the art of living." Gilbreth, one of the first female engineers to earn a Ph.D., is considered to be the first industrial/organizational psychologist.
She was promoted to a full professor at Purdue in 1940.
She also taught at several other colleges and universities, and became head of the Newark College of Engineering in 1941.
Gilbreth retired from Purdue's faculty in 1948. After Gilbreth's retirement from Purdue, she continued to travel and deliver lectures.
in engineering to a woman in 1950, two years after Gilbreth retired from the university. Several engineering awards have been named in Gilbreth's honor.
Cheaper by the Dozen (1948), a bestseller by Gilbreth's son, Frank Jr., and daughter, Ernestine, was made into a motion picture in 1950 starring Myrna Loy as Lillian and Clifton Webb as Frank.
and Ernestine, was made into a motion picture sequel in 1952.
Gilbreth was appointed the Knapp Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin's School of Engineering in 1955.
In 1964, at the age of eighty-six, Gilbreth became resident lecturer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 1968, when her health finally began to fail, Gilbreth retired from her active public life and eventually entered a nursing home. ==Death and legacy== Gilbreth died of a stroke on January 2, 1972, in Phoenix, Arizona at the age of ninety-three.
Lillian Evelyn Moller Gilbreth (May 24, 1878 – January 2, 1972) was an American psychologist, industrial engineer, consultant, and educator who was an early pioneer in applying psychology to time-and-motion studies.
She also participated in professional organizations such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers until her own death nearly fifty years later in 1972.
In 1968, when her health finally began to fail, Gilbreth retired from her active public life and eventually entered a nursing home. ==Death and legacy== Gilbreth died of a stroke on January 2, 1972, in Phoenix, Arizona at the age of ninety-three.
Postal Service issued a 40-cent Great Americans series postage stamp in Gilbreth's honor, In 1995, Gilbreth was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. ==Selected published works== A Primer of Scientific Management (1912), co-authored with Frank B.
Gilbreth Lectureships in 2001 to recognize outstanding young American engineers.
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