Editing Lillian Moller Gilbreth (section)

== Career ==

For more than forty years, Gilbreth's career combined [[psychology]] with the study of [[scientific management]] and engineering. She also included her perspectives as a wife and mother in her research, writing, and consulting work. Gilbreth became a pioneer in what is now known as [[industrial and organizational psychology]].<ref name="Held2010" /> She helped industrial engineers recognize the importance of the psychological dimensions of work. In addition, she became the first American engineer ever to create a synthesis of psychology and scientific management. (Gilbreth introduced the concept of using psychology to study management at the Dartmouth College Conference on Scientific Management in 1911).{{sfnp|Kass-Simon|Farnes|1990|p=[https://archive.org/details/womenofsciencer000kass/page/161 161]}}

In addition to jointly running [[Gilbreth, Inc.|Gilbreth, Incorporated]], their business and engineering consulting firm, Lillian and Frank wrote numerous publications as sole authors, as well as co-authoring multiple books and more than fifty papers on a variety of scientific topics. However, in their joint publications, Lillian was not always named as a co-author, possibly due to publishers' concerns about naming a female writer. Although her credentials included a doctorate in psychology, she was less frequently credited in their joint publications than her husband, who did not attend college.<ref name="Held2010" />{{sfnp|Kass-Simon|Farnes|1990|pp=157, 163–64}}

The Gilbreths were certain that the revolutionary ideas of [[Frederick Winslow Taylor]] would be neither easy to implement nor sufficient; their implementation would require hard work by engineers and psychologists to make them successful. The Gilbreths also believed that scientific management as formulated by Taylor fell short when it came to managing the human element on the shop floor.{{sfnp|Graham|1998|pp=49, 54}} The Gilbreths helped formulate a constructive critique of [[Taylorism]]; this critique had the support of other successful managers.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hartness |first=James |author-link=James Hartness |title=The Human Factor in Works Management |publisher=McGraw-Hill |year=1912 |location=New York and London |url=https://archive.org/details/humanfactorinwo00hartgoog |page=[https://archive.org/details/humanfactorinwo00hartgoog/page/n172 159] pages }} Republished in 1974. See: {{cite book|author=Hartness, James | title = The Human Factor in Works Management | publisher =Hive Publishing Company|series=Hive management history series|volume=46 |edition = | year =1974 | location =Easton, Pennsylvania |isbn=978-0-87960-047-1}}).</ref>

In 1934, Gilbreth organized the energy-saving kitchen, along with the nursery and the clothery for [[America's Little House]]. Designed by architect, [[Roger Bullard]], it was a project from [[Better Homes in America]] for a three-story suburban type home to be situated in New York City on Park Avenue and 39th Street, amongst all the skyscrapers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Purdue Agriculturist 1 February 1939 — Purdue University Newspapers Collection |url=https://historicalnewspapers.lib.purdue.edu/?a=d&d=AGR19390201-01.2.15&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN--------1 |access-date=2025-05-13 |website=historicalnewspapers.lib.purdue.edu}}</ref>

After Frank's passing and the mourning period, Lillian found that the homages to her husband were not a sign of her own taking, when three of her biggest clients did not renew or cancelled contracts.  Close associates offered her employment in their firms, but she wanted to keep Frank's business afloat.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Madame Curie Complex: The Hidden History of Women in Science|last=Des Jardens|first=Julie|publisher=The Feminist Press|year=2010|isbn=978-1-55861-613-4|location=New York City|pages=74}}</ref>

===Time, motion, and fatigue study===
{{See also|Time and motion study|Gilbreth, Inc.}}

Gilbreth and her husband were equal partners in the engineering and management consulting firm of Gilbreth, Incorporated. She continued to lead the company for decades after his death in 1924.{{sfnp|Gugin|St. Clair|2015|p=131}} The Gilbreths, both pioneers in scientific management, were especially adept at performing [[time and motion study|time-and-motion studies]]. They named their methodology the Gilbreth System and used the slogan, "The One Best Way to Do Work," to promote it. The Gilbreths also developed a new technique for their studies that used a motion-picture camera to record work processes. These filmed observations enabled the Gilbreths to redesign machinery to better suit workers' movements to improve efficiency and reduce fatigue.{{sfnp|Weber|1997|pp=40–41}} Their research on fatigue study was a forerunner to [[ergonomics]].<ref name="Dempsey2006">{{cite book |last=Dempsey |first=P.G.|editor=Waldemar Karwowski|title=International Encyclopedia of Ergonomics and Human Factors |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CqSA2DVm6nsC&pg=PA3355 |edition=2nd|volume=3 |year=2006 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-0-415-30430-6 |pages=3354–3356 |chapter=Scientific Management Influences on Ergonomic Analysis Techniques}}</ref> In addition, the Gilbreths applied a human approach to scientific management to develop innovations in workplace efficiency, such as improved lighting and regular breaks, as well as ideas for workplace psychological well-being, such as suggestion boxes and free books.{{sfnp|Gugin|St. Clair|2015|pp=131–2}}<ref name=Graham1999>{{Cite journal|last=Graham|first=Laurel D.|date=1999|title=Domesticating Efficiency: Lillian Gilbreth's Scientific Management of Homemakers, 1924–1930|jstor=3175321|journal=Signs|volume=24|issue=3|pages=633–675|doi=10.1086/495368|s2cid=144624185}}</ref>

=== Domestic management and home economics ===

Gilbreth collaborated with her husband until his death in 1924.<ref name="Held2010" /> Afterwards, she continued to research, write, and teach, in addition to consulting with businesses and manufacturers. She also participated in professional organizations such as the [[American Society of Mechanical Engineers]] until her own death nearly fifty years later in 1972.{{sfnp|Kass-Simon|Farnes|1990|pp=157–59, 161, 163}} In addition, Gilbreth turned her attention to the home, despite her aversion to housework and the fact that she had long employed full-time household help. Her children once described her kitchen as a "model of inefficiency."<ref name=Graham1999 />

Due to discrimination within the engineering community, Gilbreth shifted her efforts toward research projects in the female-friendly arena of domestic management and home economics.<ref name=Graham1999 /> She applied the principles of scientific management to household tasks and "sought to provide women with shorter, simpler, and easier ways of doing housework to enable them to seek paid employment outside the home."<ref>{{cite book|last=De Léon|first=Michael A.|title=Handbook of American Women's History|date=2000|publisher=Sage Publications|location=Thousand Oaks, California|isbn=0-7619-1635-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/handbookofameric00howa/page/220 220]|edition=Second|editor=Angela M. Howard and Frances M. Kavenik|url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofameric00howa/page/220}}</ref> The Gilbreth children often took part in the experiments.<ref name=Kitchen>{{Cite news |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/life/design/2012/10/lillian_gilbreth_s_kitchen_practical_how_it_reinvented_the_modern_kitchen.html |title=The Woman Who Invented the Kitchen|last=Lange|first=Alexandra|date=October 25, 2012|newspaper=Slate|language=en-US|issn=1091-2339|access-date=September 20, 2016}}</ref>

In addition, Gilbreth was instrumental in the development of the modern kitchen, creating the "work triangle" and linear-kitchen layouts that are often used today.<ref name=Kitchen/> In the late 1920s, she collaborated with [[Mary E. Dillon]], president of Brooklyn Borough Gas Company on the creation of an efficient kitchen, equipped with gas-powered appliances and named the ''Kitchen Practical''. Inspired by Dillon's criticisms of her own kitchen, it was designed on three principles: the correct and uniform height of working surfaces; a circular work place; and a general "circular routing of working", all carefully analyzed to reduce the time and effort required in the preparation of meals.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Woman Engineer Vol 3|url=https://www2.theiet.org/resources/library/archives/research/wes/WES_Vol_3a.html|website=www2.theiet.org|access-date=May 26, 2020}}</ref> It was unveiled in 1929 at a Women's Exposition.<ref name="Kitchen" />

She is also credited with the invention of the foot-pedal trash can, adding shelves to the inside of refrigerator doors (including the butter tray and egg keeper), and wall-light switches, all now standard.<ref name="Graham1999" /> Gilbreth filed numerous patents for her designs, including one to improve the electric can opener and another for a wastewater hose for washing machines. When Gilbreth was an industrial engineer working at [[General Electric]], she "interviewed over 4,000 women to design the proper height for stoves, sinks, and other kitchen fixtures as she worked on improving kitchen designs".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.asme.org/career-education/articles/management-professional-practice/lillian-moller-gilbreth|title=The American Society of Mechanical Engineers|last=Giges|first=Nancy|date=May 2012|website=Lillian Moller Gilbreth|access-date=September 20, 2016}}</ref>

After [[World War I]], the Gilbreths did pioneering work with the rehabilitation of war-veteran amputees.{{sfnp|Weber|1997|p=42}} Lillian continued consulting with businesses and manufacturers after Frank's death. Her clients included [[Johnson & Johnson]] and [[Macy's]], among others.{{sfnp|Gugin|St. Clair|2015|p=132}} Lillian spent three years at Macy's to find solutions to their sales and human resource issues.  Solutions included changing light fixtures to reduce eye fatigue and eliminating duplicate recordings of sales checks.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Madame Curie Complex|last=Des Jardins|first=Julie|publisher=The Feminist Press|year=2010|isbn=978-1-55861-613-4|location=New York City|pages=78–79}}</ref>

In 1926, when Johnson & Johnson hired her as a consultant to do marketing research on [[sanitary napkins]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Report of Gilbreth, Inc.: The perfect menstrual pad, January 1, 1927|url=http://www.mum.org/gilbret1.htm|publisher=Museum of Menstruation|access-date=April 16, 2011 }}</ref> Gilbreth and the firm benefited in three ways. First, Johnson & Johnson could use her training as a psychologist in the measurement and analysis of attitudes and opinions. Second, it could give her experience as an engineer specializing in the interaction between bodies and material objects. Third, her public image as a mother and a modern career woman could help the firm build consumer trust in its products.{{sfnp|Graham|1998|p=218}} In addition to her work with Johnson & Johnson, Gilbreth was instrumental in the design of a desk in cooperation with [[IBM]]  for display at the [[1933 World's Fair|Chicago World's Fair]] in 1933<ref>"Planned Motion in the Home," ''The Gilbreth Management Desk'' pamphlet, N-File, Gilbreth Collection at Purdue University, as cited in {{harvtxt|Graham|1998|p=188}}</ref>

=== Volunteer work and government service ===

[[File:Lillian Moller Gilbreth.jpg|left|thumb|Gilbreth during the [[Great Depression]]]]

Gilbreth continued her private consulting practice while serving as a volunteer and an adviser to several government agencies and nonprofit groups. In 1927 she became a charter member of the Altrusa Club of [[New York City]], an organization for Professional and Business Women started in 1917 for the purpose of providing community service.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://altrusanewyorkcity.tripod.com/id7.html|title=History|last=Altrusa International New York Club|website=altrusanewyorkcity.tripod.com|access-date=April 1, 2019}}</ref> Gilbreth's government work began as a result of her longtime friendship with [[Herbert Hoover]] and his wife [[Lou Henry Hoover]], both of whom she had known in California<ref>{{cite book|last=Gilbreth|first=Frank B.|title=Belles On Their Toes|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-059823-5|author2=Carey, Ernestine Gilbreth|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780060598235/page/181 181]|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780060598235/page/181|date=December 16, 2003}}</ref> (Gilbreth had presided over the Women's Branch of the Engineers' Hoover for President campaign).{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|p=273}}

Lou Hoover urged Gilbreth to join the [[Girl Scouts of the USA|Girl Scouts]] as a consultant in 1929. She remained active in the organization for more than twenty years, becoming a member of its board of directors.{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|p=281}} During the [[Great Depression]], President Hoover appointed Gilbreth to the Organization on Unemployment Relief as head of the "Share the Work" program.{{sfnp|Weber|1997|pp=41, 43}} In 1930, under the Hoover administration, she headed the women's section of the [[President's Emergency Committee for Employment]] and helped to gain the cooperation of women's groups for reducing unemployment.{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|p=286}} During [[World War II]] Gilbreth continued advising governmental groups and also provided expertise on education and labor issues (especially women in the workforce) for organizations such as the [[War Manpower Commission]], the [[Office of War Information]],{{sfnp|Wood|2003|p=128}} and the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]].{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|p=315}} In her later years, Gilbreth served on the Chemical Warfare Board{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|p=309}} and on [[Harry Truman]]'s Civil Defense Advisory Council.<ref>{{cite journal|title=CD appropriations face further cut|journal=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists|date=September 1951 |volume=7 |issue=9 |page=285 |editor1-first=Eugene|editor1-last=Rabinowitch|publisher=Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc.|issn=0096-3402}}</ref>  During the [[Korean War]] she served on the [[Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Morden |first=Betty J. |title=The History of the Women's Army Corps, 1945–1978 |url=https://archive.org/details/womensarmycorps100wash |year=1990 |publisher=Government Printing Office|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/womensarmycorps100wash/page/72 72]|isbn=978-0-16-002002-5 }}</ref>

===Author and educator===
Gilbreth had a lifelong interest in teaching and education. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, she took enough education courses to earn a teacher's certificate,{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|p=47}} and her doctoral dissertation at Brown University was on applying the principles of scientific management to secondary school teaching.{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|p=153}}

While residing in [[Providence, Rhode Island]], Gilbreth and her husband taught free, two-week-long summer schools in [[scientific management]] from 1913 to 1916.{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|p=140}} The Gilbreths also discussed teaching the Gilbreth System of time-and-motion study to members of industry, but it was not until after her husband's death in 1924 that she created a formal motion-study course. Gilbreth presented this idea at the First Prague International Management Congress in [[Prague]] in July 1924. Her first course began in January 1925. Gilbreth's classes offered to "prepare a member of an organization, who has adequate training both in scientific method and in plant problems, to take charge of Motion Study work in that organization."<ref>Lillian Moller Gilbreth, typescript of an advertisement for Gilbreth, Inc., c.134 f. 0830-20, N-File, Gilbreth Collection at [[Purdue University]], as cited in {{harvtxt|Graham|1998|p=96}}</ref> Coursework included laboratory projects and field trips to private firms to witness the application of [[scientific management]].{{sfnp|Graham|1998|p=98}} She ran a total of seven motion study courses out of her home in [[Montclair, New Jersey|Montclair]], [[New Jersey]] until 1930.{{sfnp|Graham|1998|p=100}}

To earn additional income to support her large family, Gilbreth delivered numerous addresses to business and industry gatherings, as well as on college and university campuses such as [[Harvard University|Harvard]], [[Yale University|Yale]], [[Colgate University|Colgate]], the [[University of Michigan]], [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]], [[Stanford University|Stanford]], and [[Purdue University]].{{sfnp|Weber|1997|pp=40–41}} In 1925 she succeeded her husband as a visiting lecturer at Purdue, where he had been delivering annual lectures.{{sfnp|Graham|1998|p=104}} In 1935 she became a professor of management at Purdue's School of Mechanical Engineering, and the country's first female engineering professor.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chong |first1=Isis |last2=Proctor |first2=Robert W. |title=Lillian Gilbreth and Amelia Earhart: How an eye toward diversity brought two pioneers together |journal=Ergonomics in Design: The Quarterly of Human Factors Applications |date=April 2021 |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=13–18 |doi=10.1177/1064804619894399 |s2cid=213663779 }}</ref> She was promoted to a full professor at Purdue in 1940.{{sfnp|Gugin|St. Clair|2015|p=131}}{{sfnp|Kass-Simon|Farnes|1990|p=158}} Gilbreth divided her time between Purdue's departments of [[industrial engineering]], [[industrial psychology]], [[home economics]], and the dean's office, where she consulted on careers for women.{{sfnp|Graham|1998|p=234}} In cooperation with Marvin Mundel, Gilbreth established and supervised a time-and-motion-study laboratory at Purdue's School of Industrial Engineering. She also demonstrated how time-and-motion studies could be used in agricultural studies and later transferred motion-study techniques to the home economics department under the banner of "work simplification".{{sfnp|Graham|1998|p=236}} Gilbreth retired from Purdue's faculty in 1948.{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004}}{{page needed|date=September 2022}}

After Gilbreth's retirement from Purdue, she continued to travel and deliver lectures.{{sfnp|Gugin|St. Clair|2015|pp=132–3}} She also taught at several other colleges and universities, and became head of the [[Newark College of Engineering]] in 1941.{{sfnp|Kass-Simon|Farnes|1990|p=158}}<ref>{{cite web|title=Want to Learn More About Pioneering Female Engineer Lillian Gilbreth, Subject of the Once-Again Rising Best-Seller, Cheaper by the Dozen? |publisher=New Jersey Institute of Technology|date=February 13, 2004 |url=http://www.njit.edu/news/2004/2004-016.php }}</ref> Gilbreth was appointed the Knapp Visiting Professor at the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison|University of Wisconsin]]'s School of Engineering in 1955.{{sfnp|Kass-Simon|Farnes|1990|p=158}}{{sfnp|Lancaster|2004|p=339}} She also taught at [[Bryn Mawr College]] and [[Rutgers University]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey |author2=Joy Harvey|author-link=Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie|author2-link=Joy Harvey|title=The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century, Volume 1|year=2000|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=978-0-415-92038-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/biographicaldict00ogil_0/page/n542 502]|url=https://archive.org/details/biographicaldict00ogil_0|url-access=registration}}</ref> Whilst teaching at Bryn Mawr, she met then student of social economy, [[Anne Gillespie Shaw]], who later worked for Gilbreth Management Consultants, doing commercial research studies and became a lifelong friend and colleague.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame|url=http://www.engineeringhalloffame.org/profile-shaw.html|access-date=January 2, 2021|website=www.engineeringhalloffame.org}}</ref> In 1964, at the age of eighty-six, Gilbreth became resident lecturer at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Kimble|first=Gregory A.|title=Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology|volume=2|year=1996|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-8058-2198-7|page=113 |author2=Boneau, C. |author3=Wertheimer, Alan Michael}}</ref> In 1968, when her health finally began to fail, Gilbreth retired from her active public life and eventually entered a nursing home.{{sfnp|Gugin|St. Clair|2015|pp=132-3}}