679 - Lillian Gilbreth, First Female Applied Psychology Phd, Cheaper By The Dozen

Oct 10, 2025

Explore the life of Lillian Gilbreth, the pioneering woman who combined psychology with workplace management, all while raising twelve children. Discover her innovations, like the efficient kitchen triangle and the pedal trash can, designed to enhance daily tasks. Uncover the societal barriers she faced as her contributions were often credited to her husband. Reflect on how her ideas can inspire modern household design and operations, prioritizing function over mere aesthetics. Lillian's legacy continues to spark innovation in organizing and managing home life.

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INSIGHT

Pioneer Of Psychology Meets Management

Lillian Gilbreth linked psychology with scientific management and became the first woman to earn a PhD in applied industrial psychology.
Her work created a foundation for workplace and household efficiency that still influences design today.

ANECDOTE

The Gilbreth Family And Joint Work

Lillian and Frank Gilbreth had twelve children and ran Gilbreth Incorporated together, blending family life with industrial studies.
After Frank died, many joint publications carried only his name despite Lillian's major contributions.

INSIGHT

Designs That Shaped Modern Kitchens

Lillian invented the kitchen work triangle and researched optimal counter heights and refrigerator door storage.
Many of her practical household innovations like pedal trash cans and door shelves became widespread design standards.

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In the last episode we talked about Maria Montessori, her becoming the first female doctor in Italy and her impact on alternative learning methods. Today I’m talking about Lillian Gilbreth who was the first female to get her psychological doctorate in industrial organizational psychology. Lillian is the original “Cheaper By the Dozen” mom who exemplified what it meant to be a successful working mother.

Lillian Gilbreth

Lillian married Frank, in Rhode Island, in 1904. While growing their family, Lillian and Frank started a company together called Gilbreth Incorporated. She studied how to make the workplace support their workers. She was able to publish many papers about her findings but they were all under Frank’s name due to “the times” and women’s rights. And I’m sure we don’t have some of her work. She was the first person to link scientific management with psychology after earning her PhD in Applied Psychology. There is a large gap of information and I hope to change that with the research I want to do. Unfortunately Frank passes away when she’s 46.

Lillian’s Ideas

After studying how we use our homes, Lillian came up with a kitchen design. Remember this was back when food wasn’t so “grab and go” and a lot of people made things from scratch. There was an assigned space for your ingredients like flour and sugar. Lillian came up with the triangle between your refrigerator, stove, and kitchen sink. Lillian discovered the proper counter height, the pedal trash can, and shelves & egg/butter storage in the door of the refrigerator. There is a whole kitchen that Lillian designed and most of it didn’t get implemented into homes. Why? It baffles me! Maybe that’s my next move? I think it’s so critical for me to get my PhD so that I can publish information that will live well beyond my life span, for future generations.

Greg often wants to bring up our resale value on our home when I come to him with one of my ideas of how we could modify our home to meet our current phase of life. In all reality I don’t see us ever moving but also I want to enjoy my house not just preserve it for resale. I think kids rooms should be larger, there should be command central for household managers like I saw in Greenfield Village, and much bigger laundry rooms. We buy these homes before we have accumulated all the things including kids and all of their things. We need to make homes more functional for less modification and more productivity!

If money were no object right now, what would you change about your house?

40’s? Just Getting Started

Lillian was just 46 when her husband passed away. And she was just getting started. Time and time again, I learn about people being 45 plus when they made their contribution to society. And throughout history I have also seen these people live longer lives. Women’s spouses pass, they continue to raise children and run the household AND live in their passion. There is no science to back it up…yet. But I believe because these people were doing what they were uniquely created to do, they lived longer.

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