A pioneer in industrial engineering and scientific management, Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878- 1972), in partnership with her husband Frank Gilbreth, developed new practices and ideas to increase labor efficiency and worker satisfaction. They created Gilbreth, Inc. to work in motion studies, a business efficiency technique intended to increase productivity while decreasing worker fatigue. In 1930, Lillian led the President’s Emergency Committee for Unemployment Relief, helping to overcome the Great Depression. She also served as an advisor on motion studies for the disabled. Lillian was the first woman elected to the National Academy of Engineering and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. She applied motion studies techniques to home management and is remembered in the famous book (1948) and movie (1950) Cheaper by the Dozen, written by her children.
