Jean Irvine and Lesley Yellowlees, first female presidents of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and of the Royal Society of Chemistry, respectively

Despite the indisputable progress made in the fight against gender inequalities since the last years of the last century, there are still many differences between the roles played by women and men when it comes to holding the top positions on boards of directors of relevant companies or in the presidencies of scientific societies, in which the presence of women does not reach at all the percentage of 40% that is estimated as necessary to achieve that equality. In this article, we show the biographies of Jean Irvine and Lesley Yellowlees, the first female presidents of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry, respectively, although their appointments occurred many years after the aforementioned societies had been founded. The objective is to make their figures known to society and place them as references and models to be followed by the rest of women who wish to practice a profession. Some brief biographical data of other women who played a prominent role in scientific and academic societies in the early years of the 20th century are also shown.