“The workers must understand that they add to the perfectness of the entire establishment. Scientific management is built on the recognition of the individual, with all the idiosyncrasies that distinguish a person.”
– Lillian Moller Gilbreth
Lillian Moller Gilbreth’s Story
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.
Featured in the Film
Evelynn M. Hammonds
Professor Evelynn M. Hammonds is the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science, and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. She joined the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 2002 after teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she was the founding director of the Center for the Study of Diversity in Science, Technology and Medicine. Her scholarly interests include the history of scientific, medical, and sociopolitical concepts of race, the history of disease and public health, gender in science and medicine, and African American history.
Julie Des Jardins
Julie Des Jardins is an author, editor, and scholar, focusing on women and gender in American culture. She has written five books, including American Queenmaker (Basic, 2020), Walter Camp: Football and the Modern Man (Oxford, 2015), Lillian Gilbreth: Redefining Domesticity (Westview, 2012), The Madame Curie Complex: The Hidden History of Women in Science (Feminist Press, 2010), and Women and the Historical Enterprise in America: Gender, Race, and the Politics of Memory (UNC, 2003). Des Jardins has a Ph.D. in American History from Brown University and has taught at Harvard, Macalester, and Baruch College, as well as City University of New York.
Lisa Seacat DeLuca
Lisa Seacat DeLuca is a Director and Distinguished Engineer at IBM. She holds a Masters of Science in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business, and a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. She is a TED speaker, the author of two children’s books titled A Robot Story, and The Internet of Mysterious Things, and holds the distinction of being the most prolific female inventor in IBM history. Her innovation portfolio includes over 750 patent applications filed within the United States and abroad, of which 500 have been granted to date. Her patent ideas range from cloud computing, mobile, IoT, social, security, AI, and commerce.
Her Life & Times
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1878
Lillian Moller Gilbreth was born in Oakland, California
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IN HISTORY - 1890s
“New Woman” concept emerged
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1900
Gilbreth graduated from University of California, Berkeley
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1900
Gilbreth pursued a master's degree at Columbia University
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IN HISTORY - 1900s
Eugenics Movement
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1902
Gilbreth returned to California
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1903
Lillian met Frank Gilbreth
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1904
Lillian and Frank get married
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1905
The Gilbreth family
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1909
Gilbreths moved to New Jersey
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IN HISTORY - 1900s
Industrial Revolution and Frederick Winslow Taylor
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1908-1909
The Gilbreths' work was published
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1912
The Gilbreths worked at the New England Butt Company
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1914
The Psychology of Management
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1915
Lillian Gilbreth graduated from Brown University with a PhD in Psychology
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IN HISTORY - 1917
World War I
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1919
The Gilbreths moved to Montclair, New Jersey
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1921
Lillian Gilbreth was named first woman honorary member of the Society of Industrial Engineers
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1924
Frank Gilbreth died at age 56 from a heart attack
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1925-1929
Consumerism opened new opportunities for Lillian Gilbreth
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1926
Gilbreth was admitted to American Society of Mechanical Engineers
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1926-1930
Gilbreth focused on domestic consulting
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1929
Gilberth’s Kitchen Practical
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1930s
Gilbreth in the public sector
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1935
Gilbreth became the first female professor in the School of Engineering at Purdue
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IN HISTORY - 1941-1945
WWII
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1948
Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes
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1965
Gilbreth became the first woman appointed to the National Academy of Engineering
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1966
Gilbreth received the Hoover Medal
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1972
Gilbreth died at age 94
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1984
U.S. Post Office issued a Lillian Gilbreth stamp
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1995
Gilbreth inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame at Seneca Falls
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IN HISTORY 2018
Women in engineering today