Editing Lillian Moller Gilbreth (section)

== Early life and education ==

Lillie Evelyn Moller was born in [[Oakland, California]], on May 24, 1878,{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|p=[https://archive.org/details/makingtimelillia00lanc/page/21 21]}} to Annie ({{nee|Delger}}) and William Moller, a builder's supply merchant. She was their second child and the eldest of the family's nine surviving children.{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|pp=21, 35}} Their first child, Anna Adelaide, had died at age four months.{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|pp=24–25}} Her maternal grandfather [[Frederick Delger]] was a German immigrant who became the richest man in Oakland.

Educated at home until the age of nine, Moller began formal schooling in the first grade at a public elementary school and was rapidly promoted through the grade levels.{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|pp=38–39}} She was elected vice president of her senior class at Oakland High School and graduated with exemplary grades in May 1896.{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|p=41}}

Although Moller wanted to go to college, her father was opposed to such education for his daughters. Because of this, she did not take all the required college preparatory courses in high school. She did persuade her father to let her try college for a year and was admitted to the [[University of California]] on the condition that she take the missing Latin course from high school in her first semester at university. In August 1896, Moller was one of 300 entering students. The University of California at that time was housed in four buildings in the hills above the little town of [[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]]. It charged no tuition for California residents and was underfunded. Classes were large and many were held in tents. There were no dormitories; men lived in nearby boarding houses and women commuted from home.{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|pp=44–46}}

Moller did well enough during her first year, coming in near the top of her class, that her father agreed to allow her to continue her education. She commuted from home on the streetcar, and in the evenings helped her mother with the household and her siblings with their homework. She majored in English, also studying philosophy and psychology, and had enough education courses to earn a teaching certificate. She also won a prize for poetry and acted in student plays.{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|p=[https://archive.org/details/makingtimelillia00lanc/page/21 21]}} In the spring of her senior year the new university president, [[Benjamin Ide Wheeler]], asked her to be one of the student speakers at the commencement ceremonies. On May 16, 1900, she graduated from the university and became the first woman to speak at a University of California commencement. The title of her speech was "Life: A Means or an End".{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|pp=47–52}}{{sfnp|Gugin|St. Clair|2015|p=131}}

Moller had begun to think of a professional career rather than staying at home after graduation. She now wished to be called Lillian because she felt it was a more dignified name for a university graduate, and she left home to enroll in graduate school at [[Columbia University]] in [[New York City]]. Her literature professor [[Charles Mills Gayley|Charles Gayley]] had suggested she study there with [[Brander Matthews]]. Graduate enrollment at Columbia was almost half women at the time, but Matthews would not allow them in his classes. Instead, she studied literature with [[George Edward Woodberry]].<ref name="Held2010" /> A lasting influence was her study with the psychologist [[Edward Thorndike]], newly appointed at Columbia. Though she became ill with [[pleurisy]] and was brought home by her father, she continued to refer to him in her later work.{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|pp=54–57}} 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.{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|pp=57–61}}<ref name="Held2010">{{cite PFV |last=Held |first=Lisa |year=2010 |title=Lillian Gilbreth |url=https://feministvoices.com/profiles/lillian-gilbreth |access-date=August 10, 2021}}</ref>

Moller began studies for a [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] at the University of California, but took time off to travel through [[Europe]] in the spring of 1903. Following her marriage to [[Frank Bunker Gilbreth]] in 1904 and relocation to [[New York City|New York]],{{sfnp|Gugin|St. Clair|2015|p=131}} 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.{{sfnp|Wood|2003|p=125}} The dissertation was published as ''[[The Psychology of Management|The Psychology of Management: The Function of the Mind in Determining, Teaching and Installing Methods of Least Waste]]'' in 1914.{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|p=125}}{{sfnp|Gugin|St. Clair|2015|p=132}}

After the Gilbreths relocated their family to [[Providence, Rhode Island]], Lillian enrolled at [[Brown University]]. She earned a [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] in applied psychology in 1915, which made her the first of the pioneers of [[industrial management]] to have a doctorate.{{sfnp|Gugin|St. Clair|2015|p=132}}{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|pp=157–159}} The topic of her dissertation was efficient teaching methods and titled ''Some Aspects of Eliminating Waste in Teaching''.{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|p=363}} Her doctoral dissertation was published in 2019 as a book titled ''Eliminating Waste in Teaching'' ({{ISBN|978-1-7320191-0-2}}).