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 Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878-1972)
A career of 'firsts' for mother of 12

  By LAURA MEADE KIRK
Journal-Bulletin Staff Writer

Long before women routinely combined families and careers, there was Lillian Moller Gilbreth.

She was the engineer, management consultant, psychologist and professor who was immortalized in the best-selling book Cheaper by the Dozen - which was written by two of her twelve children.

Though she and her husband, Frank Gilbreth, were probably best known for introducing innovative motion studies and efficiency techniques in the work place and at home, she was also a true pioneer in the women's movement.

Her resume is replete with "firsts," from being the first woman invited to join the football coaching staff at Cornell University to being the first woman to receive the George Washington Award - one of the nation's highest awards in the sciences - for her "outstanding contribution to engineering and management and for unselfish devotion to problems of the handicapped."

Gilbreth was born in 1878 to a wealthy family in Oakland, Calif. Her father told her college was necessary only "for teachers and other women who will have to earn their living. . . . No daughter of mine will have to do that." But she attended the University of California at Berkeley, and became the first woman to address a commencement there when she graduated in 1900.

Then, while studying for a doctorate in literature, she met Frank Gilbreth, a successful building contractor. During an unusual courtship, they drew up a contract for what they called their "One Best Marriage" by listing their qualifications for getting married, and plans for the future.

They married in 1904, and though she had studied psychology, education and literature, her husband urged her to become an engineer and his partner. Together, they formed Gilbreth Inc. in New York. They moved to Providence in 1912 to set up a management consulting business, seeking the "one best way" to do everything from factory work to raising a family.

They used motion studies to find ways to simplify and speed a worker's task to help improve production, raising an employer's profits.

Meanwhile, Frank Gilbreth told his wife he wanted six sons and six daughters. In an interview with the New York Post in 1941, she recalled asking him, "How on earth anybody could have 12 children and continue a career?" He said: "We teach management, so we have to practice it."

She worked full time as a mother and consulting engineer while continuing her doctoral studies. She earned a doctorate from Brown University between the births of her seventh and eighth children.

Her husband died in 1924, and she continued to head Gilbreth Inc. for the next 46 years. Determined to run the firm efficiently, she went back to college at the age of 50. She obtained a master's degree in engineering, then doctorates in engineering and science. She also was a professor of management.

When she found that traditional engineering companies didn't want a woman consultant, she focused her attention on domestic engineering.

She helped design modern kitchens, to make housework more efficient. She questioned 4,000 women to design the proper height for stoves and sinks. Ironically, she barely knew how to cook, since she'd had servants all of her life.

She also helped adapt her techniques for the handicapped, developing devices and techniques to help them lead more normal lives.

She traveled the world until she was well into her 80s, finally retiring in 1970. She died at the age of 93.

Sources: " 'An ornament and honor to her sex': New England Women from Valley Forge to Fenway Park," a history curriculum researched and written by Jane Lancaster; Journal-Bulletin files.

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