Lillian Moller Gilbreth

Gilbreth’s parents were of German descent. The oldest of nine siblings, she was raised in a “Victorian” household, where men and women had narrowly prescribed roles. The men worked, and the women stayed home to take care of  family. 

[Image courtesy of Purdue University Libraries, Karnes Archives and Special Collections]

Moller attended the University of California, Berkeley where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree  in English and became the first woman to speak at the university’s commencement. 

[Image courtesy of Purdue University Libraries, Karnes Archives and Special Collections]

Moller moved to New York City to pursue a master’s degree in philosophy and comparative literature at Columbia University, but the professor who was scheduled to be her mentor refused to work with her because she was a woman. Moller transferred to the Department of Psychology, where she worked with psychologist Edward Thorndike, a prominent figure in the eugenics movement. Thorndike taught her concepts that would become fundamental in her professional career, such as how individuals are shaped by their environment and how human satisfaction varies across individuals. 

[Image courtesy of Library of Congress]

Mass immigration from Europe and Asia, and the decline of childbearing by educated men and women was causing alarm in the U.S. and contributed to the rise of the eugenics movement. Developed by English sociologist Francis Galton, eugenics applied Charles Darwin’s theory of “survival of the fittest” to humans, believing in controlled breeding as a way to preserve and improve dominant groups in the U.S. population, and eliminate those they considered to be “less fit.” Closely associated with scientific racism and white supremacy, eugenics largely fell out of favor as a result of Nazi Germany where the philosophy was used to justify the Holocaust during World War II. 

[Image courtesy of Eugenics Record Office Records, American Philosophical Society Library]

Moller returned to California where she attended UC Berkeley again, and completed a master’s degree in English in 1902. 

[Image courtesy of California Historical Society Collection, University of Southern California]

On a layover in Boston, Moller was introduced to Frank Gilbreth, who at the time headed his own construction company. Gilbreth had invented a gravity-fed concrete mixer and developed many improvements in bricklaying, such as the “scaffold,” which reduced the number of bricklayer’s motions and increased their productivity by 25%.

[Image courtesy of Smith College]

At an early stage of their marriage, Frank and Lillian establish a “job analysis” of what each could bring to their partnership, with the husband and wife as productive partners. Based on the skills each could provide, they aimed to create an efficient family unit in order to create “the One Best Marriage.” Lillian described that they made an effort to have a 50-50 marriage. 

[Image courtesy of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth Collection, Purdue University Libraries]

Lillian had her first child, and subsequently had twelve children, at roughly fifteen month intervals between 1905-1922. In 1912, her daughter Mary died at age five from diphtheria. One of the main reasons the Gilbreth’s had 12 children was because they were eugenicists who believed that white educated families should reproduce to keep America “pure.”

[Image courtesy of Purdue University]

The Industrial Revolution in the U.S., and especially technological advances that allowed mass production, created an interest on the part of companies and government agencies to make the workforce as productive and efficient as possible. As a result, Frederick Winslow Taylor developed the field of scientific management at the turn of the 20th century. Based on his theory that reducing the time to complete a task was the primary way to increase productivity, Taylor conducted time studies using a stopwatch to time each element of a task. In 1911, he published his life’s work, Principles of Scientific Management. 

[Image courtesy of University of Pennsylvania]

The Gilbreths’ manuscripts Concrete System and Bricklaying System were published. Even though they were mostly written and co-written by Lillian, they were published with only Frank’s name on the title page. Publishers during this time believed that including a woman as an author would undermine the credibility of a book. 

The Gilbreths moved to Providence, Rhode Island, where they were hired to introduce the principles of scientific management to workers at the New England Butt Company, a factory that manufactured door hinges. The Gilbreths combined elements of Taylorite time study, which focused on time and measured work movements with a stopwatch, and the Gilbreth motion study, which used film cameras and calibrated clocks to analyze the motion of workers. Lillian added in the element of psychology to introduce efficient and safe work conditions for workers.

[Image courtesy of Smithsonian Institute]

In 1911, while pursuing her PhD in Psychology, Lillian wrote her dissertation focusing on the element of psychology in scientific management. In 1912, Frank and Lillian tried to publish her dissertation, but it was not easy to find a publisher that would print a woman-authored book. It was finally published in 1914, under the condition that the author’s name appear as L.M. Gilbreth, M.L., and that publicity would not refer to the author as a woman. 

[Image courtesy of National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution]

In Montclair, they established the “Mostulab,” short for Motion Study Laboratory, where they implemented scientific management experiments into their home. Their children acted as research assistants and as publicity for their motion time studies. They wanted to prove that a scientifically managed family would allow a woman to have both a family and a career. The Gilbreths created a system of standing and process charts, orders, and contracts. Lillian wrote, “A standing order tells what is to be done, who is to do it, where, when, how. It also tells who is to inspect the work when done and provides for over inspection, or reinspecting exceptionally good or poor work, which gives the parents a chance to keep track automatically of how things get on. The work records are made on the output charts which show that the standing orders have been followed.”  

[Image courtesy of Purdue University]

Lillian Gilbreth was the first woman awarded honorary membership in the Society of Industrial Engineers, and was the second honorary member, after President Herbert Hoover. 

[Image courtesy of Purdue University]

[Image courtesy of Purdue University]

[Image courtesy of Wikipedia]

During this time, Gilbreth focused on making domestic work more efficient. She introduced the concept of 50/50, in regards to domestic work divided between husband, wife, and children. She wrote The Home-maker and Her Job in 1928. 

[Image courtesy of Alamy]

Gilbreth partnered with the Brooklyn Borough Gas Company and developed Gilbreth’s Kitchen Practical, unveiled in 1929 at a Women’s Exposition. Lillian used her expertise in motion study to invent a modern efficient kitchen. She changed the layout of the kitchen to a L-shaped arrangement, which continues to be one of the most popular and common designs today. Gilbreth invented shelves inside refrigerator doors, including the egg keeper and the butter tray; the management desk; the foot-pedal trash can; and helped improve electric stoves, sinks, and washing machines, and devised methods to bake and clean up  in just a few dozen steps. She became a sensation in the field of domestic work, which she would pick up again later in her career to work with handicapped homemakers.

[Image courtesy of Smithsonian Institute]

In 1928, Gilbreth was appointed to head the women’s division of President Hoover’s Emergency Committee for Employment, and was appointed consultant and member of the board of directors of the Girl Scouts by First Lady Lou Hoover. Gilbreth served on six additional presidential committees.  

[Image courtesy Girls Scouts of the USA Archives]

During World War II, Gilbreth sat on the education subcommittee of the War Manpower Commission, on the educational advisory committee of the Office of War Information, and on the boards of the women’s army and naval auxiliary, known commonly as WACS and WAVES. 

[Image courtesy of Associated Press]

The Gilbreth family became immortalized after children Ernestine and Frank Jr. Gilbreth published Cheaper by the Dozen, a semi-autobiographical book about the Gilbert family. The book portrayed Lillian as a devoted mother, rather than an industrial psychologist and pioneer. The book became a national bestseller and was made into a film in 1950, with a remake in 2003. In 1950 they published the sequel, Belles on Their Toes, which was also turned into a film in 1952. 

Gilbreth was the first female to receive the Hoover Medal, a prestigious award commemorating the civic and humanitarian achievements of engineers. 

[Image courtesy of Getty]

Gilbreth retired in her late 80s and  lived in Arizona with her daughter, Ernestine, and her family. She died on January 2, 1972 in Phoenix, Arizona. 

[Image courtesy of Associated Press]