⌡Phillips, Lena Madesin1881╨1955lawyer and clubwomanBorn in Nicholasville, Kentucky, on October 15, 1881, Anna Lena Phillips adopted the names Lena Madesin when she was eleven. She was educated at the local Jessamine Female Institute and in 1899╨1901 at the Woman╒s College of Baltimore (now Goucher College). She attended the Peabody Institute of Music in Baltimore for a time, but an injury to her arm ended her dreams of a career as a concert pianist. Over the next decade she held various jobs: she worked in a store, sold books door-to-door, sold music, taught music at Jessamine Institute, and conducted her own music school. In 1915, after suffering a nervous breakdown, she resolved to become a lawyer. Two years later she graduated from the University of Kentucky Law School. She soon became an attorney for the Young Women╒s Christian Association and secretary of its National War Work Council. In 1918 she was sent to New York City to organize the National Business Women╒s Committee for war work. Although the war had ended before the committee was able to begin its work, the members decided to form a permanent peacetime organization for women in business and the professions. Lena Phillips organized a convention in St. Louis in July 1919 at which was formed the National Federation of Business and Professional Women╒s Clubs, and from then until 1923 she was executive secretary of the federation. While traveling widely to foster the establishment of local clubs, she helped found the federation╒s journal, Independent Woman, in 1920. In 1923, after receiving a master╒s degree in law from New York University, she entered private practice in New York City. In 1926╨1929 she served as president of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women╒s Clubs, and during that period she initiated the movement that culminated in a conference in Geneva in August 1930 at which the International Federation of Business and Professional Women was formed. She served as president of the International Federation from then until 1947. In 1931╨1935 she was also president of the National Council of Women, and in 1933 she was president of the International Conference of Women held in conjunction with the Chicago World╒s Fair. She abandoned her legal practice in 1935 and for four years thereafter was associate editor of and a columnist for the Pictorial Review. Her work as president of the International Federation required her to travel frequently to Europe, and during and after World War II she worked to sustain and rebuild clubs and national federations there. She was also active in war relief work and the United Nations and later was chairman of the First International Conference on Public Information. She died in Marseilles, France, on May 22, 1955. ■styl ` ! ¬ 5¬ ! 5¬ 7 !I ║ !I ╗ !I ┤ 5¬ ╡ !I !I !I P !I ` !I link `
