Lena Madesin Phillips (September 15, 1881 – May 22, 1955) was a lawyer and clubwoman from Nicholasville, Kentucky, who founded the National Business and Professional Women's Clubs in 1919.

She enlarged her circle, traveling also to Europe, and in 1930 she founded the International Federation of Business and Professional Women.

From a young age, Phillips wanted to step outside the normal gender-based roles, and she was eager to gain an education.

When Phillips was 11 years old, she changed her name to "Madesin" (a transliteration of the French médecin) in honor of her oldest brother George, who was studying medicine in Paris, France, and became a doctor.

[5] Due to her father's influence and her interest in politics and economics, Phillips soon studied law at the University of Kentucky.

She helped lead the National Business Women's Committee to form a permanent organization after the war ended; in July 1919 at a convention in St. Louis, Missouri, she started with them the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs of the United States (NFBPWC).

To broaden national exposure, Phillips toured the country, giving speeches about the club in such places as Kansas City, Colorado, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Los Angeles, California.

After leaving her law practice in 1935, Phillips served as a columnist and assistant editor of the Pictorial Review from 1935 to 1939, years of the Great Depression.

[citation needed] The first trip that she took with colleagues included stops in England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy to meet with professional business women and discuss starting clubs in their countries.

Phillips returned to Geneva, Switzerland, where on August 26, 1930, the International Federation of Business and Professional Women.

[12] According to historian Jacqueline Castledine, Phillips and Lacey-Baker "operated in a world of socially and politically committed women reformers, some also living in a same-sex relationship.

"[13] Due to the two women's relationship, biographer Lisa Sergio dedicated her book about Phillips, A Measure Filled (1972), to Lacey-Baker.