Sonia Pressman Fuentes

Sonia Pressman Fuentes (born May 30, 1928 in Berlin, Germany[2]) is a German American author, speaker, feminist leader, and lawyer.

Sonia P. Fuentes
Born
Sonia Pressman[1]

(1928-05-30) May 30, 1928 (age 95)
Berlin, Germany
EducationCornell University (BA)
University of Miami (LLB)
Occupation(s)lawyer, writer

Early years and education edit

Fuentes was born in Berlin, Germany, of Polish parents, with whom she came to the U.S. to escape the Holocaust. She graduated from Cornell University and the University of Miami School of Law.[3]

Career edit

In the U.S., she became one of the founders of the second wave of the women's movement. She was a co-founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and Federally Employed Women (FEW), and she was one of the first woman lawyers in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). She contributed to several early sexual discrimination cases by connecting complainants with feminist lawyers outside the EEOC.[4]

Fuentes is the author of a memoir, Eat First—You Don't Know What They'll Give You, The Adventures of an Immigrant Family and Their Feminist Daughter (1999),[5][self-published source] which has been required reading at Cornell University and American University in Washington, D.C.[citation needed] Her articles on women's rights and other subjects have been published in newspapers, magazines, and journals in the U.S. and other countries.

Fuentes has given talks throughout the U.S. as well as in Germany, Spain, Japan, China, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand. She has served as an "American specialist" on women's rights for the then-U.S. Information Agency.[citation needed]

She is a member of the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame. Since 1994 Fuentes has been a resident of Sarasota, Florida as a snowbird and permanently, since 2009.[6]

Her papers are archived in the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University.[7]

Awards edit

References edit

  1. ^ Commencement program of the University of Miami, June 10, 1957
  2. ^ "Sonia Pressman Fuentes". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
  3. ^ Strebeigh 2009, p. 115.
  4. ^ Banaszak, Lee Ann (2010). The Women's Movement Inside and Outside the State. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-13286-2. p.126-127.
  5. ^ Fuentes, Sonia Pressman (24 November 1999). Eat First -- You Don't Know What They'll Give You: The Adventures of an Immigrant Family and Their Feminist Daughter. Xlibris. ISBN 146281462X.
  6. ^ Fuentes, Sonia Pressman, Letter to the Editor, SRQ Daily, July 9, 2013
  7. ^ "Collection: Papers of Sonia Pressman Fuentes, ca.1929-2009 (Inclusive), 1955-2009 (Bulk) | HOLLIS for".
  8. ^ "Foremother and Health Policy Hero Awards Luncheon". 7 May 2018.

Bibliography edit

Further reading edit

External links edit