Lena Madesin Phillips, feminist of the early twentieth century, realized, before women even had the right to vote, that they would never achieve equality with men unless such equality were established on economic grounds. In 1919, bucking tradition, apathy and ignorance, she founded the Federation of Business and Professional Women, bringing American working women together for the first time. By nature a pioneer, as the first woman to receive her degree with honors from the Law School of the University of Kentucky, and as a campaign manager and organizer of women, she was prophetic in her demands for the sort of rights which women should aim to achieve. Her writings, as editor of Pictorial Review, and countless articles, pamphlets and speeches, delivered as frequently to men's organizations as to women's, reveal the extent to which she was in advance of her time. A Measure Filled, drawn from her unfinished autobiography, weaves in and out of one of the most troubled, yet challenging, periods of America's history, ranging from 1881, the year of her birth, to her sudden death at Marseilles, in 1955, on her way to a conference with Arab women in the Middle East.
