Lillian Moller Gilbreth

Background:

Lillian Moller Gilbreth was born on May 24, 1878 in Oakland, California to a family of ten children. Up until the age of nine she was homeschooled, but after that she began to attend public school. Her grades were very good and during her senior year of high school she was elected vice president of her class. After graduating in 1896, she desired to attend college to study literature and music. Gilbreth’s father did not approve and believed that higher education wasn’t necessary for women because all women needed to know was how to “manage a home gracefully.” However, she was able to convince him to allow her to attend the University of California at Berkley as a commuter student. Although her major was English, she took a psychology course with George Stratton, an important figure in experimental psychology. When she graduated in 1900, she was the first woman to graduate from her college with honors and was also the first woman to speak at the commencement ceremony. Gilbreth decided to continue studying English literature and went forth for a master’s degree, which she received in 1902. In light of her academic accomplishments, she decided to travel to Boston, where she met Frank Gilbreth. They married in 1904 and she became his business partner in engineering and construction. Their interest was on efficiency and they believed that engineering and psychology needed to be combined. With her husband’s inspiration and support, Gilbreth continued at University of California for her doctorate (in Psychology) and completed a dissertation by 1911, but was refused a degree because she failed to meet the residency requirements (she did not want to leave her family and had begun to have children). No one would publish it either because it was thought to be too ahead of its time. They decided to move to Rhode Island and she enrolled at Brown University to take her doctorate again, which she received in 1915. She ended up having 12 children total by 1922, and when Frank Gilbreth died in 1924, she was left as their sole provider. She had a long life and died in Phoenix, Arizona on January 2, 1972 at the age of 93.


Professional Life: 
Lillian Gilbreth’s work with her late husband inspired her to continue in the fields of engineering and she is considered to be the first industrial and organizational psychologist. She observed that workers are encouraged by both indirect and direct incentives, and many of her beliefs and work with Frank (he had the technical view, she had the human view) led to modern day concepts such as job standardization, wage plans, and job simplification. In 1926, she was the first female member in the American Society of Industrial Engineers and soon thereafter she began teaching jobs at universities such as Bryn Mawr, Rutgers, and Purdue. At some of these schools, she was the first female professor. She also worked with GE to improve the designs of kitchens and appliances, even inventing the foot-pedal trashcan and refrigerator door shelves. Gilbreth served on six presidential committees during her life, including a committee for unemployment and a military consultant. Her professional life was very illustrious and she continued working well through her 80s. In her lifetime, she received over twenty awards, such as the Hoover Medal for Distinguished Public Service. Another interesting fact is that she was the first and only psychologist to ever be on a U.S. postage stamp. Some today call her the “mother of modern management.”

Relevance:
Gilbreth helped influence many topics in regards to modern organizational and industrial psychology. Due to her ideas about leadership and other aspects of the job world, she is recognized today for psychology in the workplace. She paved the way for many women by showing that they could achieve more than just a life as a housewife. Even with twelve children to take care of alone, she was able to manage a successful career, and her children had many achievements in their lives as well. In her life she was also a member of the Ohio Woman’s Suffrage Association in order to empower women. Gilbreth believed that “all individuals have the right to happiness” and that everyone can and should show their full potential in life, showing that she wanted success and equality for everyone.

References:
http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/gilbreth.html
http://www.psych.yorku.ca/femhop/Lilian%20Gilbreth.htm
http://psychology.okstate.edu/museum/women/gi-go.html#gilbreth2

Francesca Yates
Psychology of Women
Professor Hill
18 February 2013