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Lillian Moller Gilbreth
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Lillian Moller Gilbreth, PhD, (May 24, 1878 – January 2, 1972) was one of the first working female engineers holding a PhD. She was born in Oakland, California to William and Anne (née Delger) Moller.
She is arguably the first true industrial/organizational psychologist. She and her husband Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr. were pioneers in the field of industrial engineering. Their interest in time and motion study may have had something to do with the fact that they had an extremely large family.
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Encyclopedia
Lillian Moller Gilbreth, PhD, (May 24, 1878 – January 2, 1972) was one of the first working female engineers holding a PhD. She was born in Oakland, California to William and Anne (née Delger) Moller.
She is arguably the first true industrial/organizational psychologist. She and her husband Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr. were pioneers in the field of industrial engineering. Their interest in time and motion study may have had something to do with the fact that they had an extremely large family. The books Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes are the story of their family life with their twelve children.
She served as an advisor to Presidents Hoover, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson on matters of civil defense, war production and rehabilitation of the physically handicapped.
She and husband Frank have a permanent exhibit in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and her portrait hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.
Education
She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a BA (1900) and MA (1902). Lillian completed her dissertation to obtain her PhD from the University of California but did not receive the degree because she was not able to complete the residency requirements. Her dissertation was called The Psychology of Management. She later went on to earn a Ph.D from Brown University in 1915. It was the first granted in industrial psychology.
She also received 22 honorary degrees from schools such as Princeton University, Brown University, and the University of Michigan.
Marriage
Lillian married Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr. on October 19, 1904 in Oakland, California. As planned, they became the parents of twelve children, eleven of whom lived to adulthood.
The children of Frank Bunker Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth were:
Anne M. Gilbreth (September 9, 1905 – February 16, 1987); married Robert E. Barney; three children.
Mary Elizabeth Gilbreth (December 13, 1906 – January 31, 1912); died of diphtheria at age 5.
Ernestine Gilbreth (April 4, 1908 – November 4, 2006); married Charles E. Carey; two children.
Martha B. Gilbreth (November 5, 1909 – November 15, 1968); married Richard E. Tallman; four children.
Frank Bunker Gilbreth (March 27, 1911 – February 18, 2001); married 1): Elizabeth Cauthen 2): Mary Pringle Manigault; three children.
William Gilbreth (December 18, 1912 – April 14, 1990); married Jean Irvin; two children.
Lillian M. Gilbreth (June 17, 1914 – June 23, 2001); married Donald Dodge Johnson; two children.
Frederick M. Gilbreth (living); married Jessie Tallman; three children.
Daniel B. Gilbreth (September 17, 1917 – June 13, 2006); married Irene Jensen; three children.
John M. Gilbreth (May 29, 1919 – December 25, 2002); married Dorothy Girvan; three children.
Robert M. Gilbreth (July 4, 1920 – July 24, 2007); married Barbara Filer; two children.
Jane M. Gilbreth (June 22, 1922 – January 10, 2006); married George Paul Heppes; two children.
Gilbreth, Inc.
Together she and her husband were partners in the management consulting firm of Gilbreth, Inc. which performed time and motion studies.
Their children often took part in the experiments, and the family worked as a team!
Death
She died on January 2, 1972 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Legacy
Gilbreth, sometimes called "The First Lady of Engineering," was the first woman elected into the National Academy of Engineering. She also held Professorships at Purdue University, The Newark College of Engineering and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In 1984, the United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp in Gilbreth's honor, and she was lauded by the American Psychological Association as the first psychologist to be so commemorated. While psychologists Gary Brucato Jr. and John D. Hogan later questioned this claim, noting that John Dewey had appeared on an American stamp 17 years earlier, they also emphasized that Gilbreth was the first female psychologist to do so. Moreover, a complete, international list of psychologists on stamps compliled by Psychology Historian Ludy T. Benjamin indicates that Gilbreth was only the second female psychologist commemorated by a postage stamp in all the world, preceded only by Maria Montessori in India in 1970 .
Further reading
- Gilbreth, Lillian, As I Remember: An Autobiography, Engineering & Management Press, 1998, ISBN 0-89806-186-5
- Lancaster, Jane, Making Time: Lillian Moller Gilbreth, A Life Beyond "Cheaper by the Dozen", Northeastern University Press, 2004, ISBN 1-55553-612-3
- Graham, Laurel D. 1994. "Critical Biography Without Subjects and Objects: An Encounter with Dr. Lillian Moller Gilbreth", The Sociological Quarterly 35:621–643.
- Sullivan, Sherry. 1995. "Management's Unsung Theorist: An Examination of the Works of Lillian M. Gilbreth", Biography 18: 31–41.
- Yost, Edna. 1943. "Lillian Moller Gilbreth", in American Women in Science. Philadelphia: Frederick A. Stokes.
- Lancaster, Jane. "O Pioneer", Brown Alumni Monthly 96(5) February 1996.
External links
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