Lena Madesin Phillips Award

    The Lena Madesin Phillips Award is the highest award given by BPW International.

    In 2021 the Award honored Ambica Shestra for four decades of women empowerment for the women of Nepal.

Previous awards have been

    2008    Dr. Livia Ricci, Italy

                Dr. Yvette Swan, Bermuda

                Sylvia Perry, UK

    2011    Dr. Antoinette Ruegg, Switzerland

    2014    Dr. Pat Harrison, Australia

    2017    Dr. Chonchanok Viravan, Thailand

                Elizabeth Benham, US

    

Sad . . . Ironic

     Both sad . . . and ironic . . . that Dr. Lena Madesin Phillips is better remembered in other parts of the world than in the United States.    

    The website of the BPW International has this to say about Dr. Phillips: 

Lena Madesin Phillips Award is the highest award of BPW International, given to those who previously hold international posts in BPW and significantly contribute to BPW International for over 17 years, as Lena Madesin Phillips was international president for 17 years.

This award is typically given once every triennium at the opening ceremony of BPW International Congress. This triennium, the award ceremony was held virtually on 29 March 2021.

Keep scrolling below for pictures of Dr. Phillips' birthplace in Kentucky.

Revisiting

 Revisiting these pages. Keeping the memory alive.

Not Forgotten

Dr. Phillips has been gone since 1955, but her work lives on. She would have been intrigued and gratified at how recognition of women's rights has progressed.

Don't know who Dr. Phillips was? Read her biography, A Measure Filled, by Lisa Sergio. One of my treasures is a copy autographed by Lisa Sergio, a woman whose own story is equally compelling.

A Measure Filledreads like no other biography I've ever read. Urged by her compeers, Dr. Phillips was in the process of writing her autobiography. After her death the project was put in the hands of a long-time companion, who was never able to complete the manuscript. After her death, the project was put into the hands of Lisa Sergio. Since Lisa Sergio used part of Dr. Phillips' original work, in some passages the text reads like an autobiography.

PLEASE ENJOY

Please enjoy these photographs taken in Nicholasville, Kentucky, of the childhood home and tombstone of Dr. Lena Madesin Phillips.

Nicholasville, about twelve miles southwest of Lexington, is probably not much bigger than it was in Dr. Phillips' time, still a very pleasant place with a small-town atmosphere.

DR. PHILLIPS' BIRTHPLACE

Lena Madesin Phillips was born in Nicholasville, south of Lexington, Kentucky. The sign stands on Highway 27, (business route) going south from downtown.

DIED IN FRANCE, BURIED IN KENTUCKY

Dr. Phillips died during a trip to Europe in 1955. She was born in 1881. The inscription on her tombstone reads: A NEW COMMANDMENT I GIVE UNTO YOU THAT YE LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Other members of the family.



Maple Grove Cemetery

Maple Grove Cemetery, north part of Nicholasville.

SIGN AT CORNER OF YARD

The sign marks the birthplace of Dr. Lena Madesin Phillips

FALL SCENES

We were in Kentucky in the autumn.

A CLOSER VIEW

The house faces east (if I have my directions straight).

THE PHILLIPS' HOME

The Phillips home, now in private ownership, sits on a light rise above the town.

A MEASURE FILLED

A key figure in the women's rights movement, Dr. Lena Madesin Phillips' story is told in "A Measure Filled."

The book itself has an interesting history. Friends and supporters of Dr. Phillips had long encouraged her to write her autobiography, to document the history of the women's movement in the middle part of the twentieth century.

Dr. Phillips had started on the task, which remained unfinished when she suddenly became ill on a trip to Europe. She died in France without having completed the work.

Her long time companion, Marjory Lacey-Barker, wanted to complete the biography, but was overwhelmed by the volume of notes and the magnitude of Dr. Phillips' accomplishments. Ten years later she passed away, the biography still a work in progress.

Lisa Sergio used much of the original sections written by Dr. Phillips herself when she completed the manuscript. The result is a curious mix, a biography that reads in places like an autobiography.

Several years ago IFBPW (The International Federation of Business and Professional Women) republished the book. Copies can also be obtained, at a reasonable cost, through a rare book search on the internet.

I've bought several copies -- and passed them on to friends -- for under $20. The copy I treasure most bears the bold signature of Lisa Sergio.