Feminist Sonia Pressman Fuentes. Her Passion for Women’s Rights

There is no doubt that women have come a very long way in our U.S. society in regards to equality. When I learn of stories of discrimination and inequality that women have endured in America, I am truly appalled to think that this would be of our lifetime. I feel very fortunate I was never discriminated against for being a woman, and I owe this to all of the people who have had to fight for these changes within our government for decades. My recent interview with feminist lawyer Ms. Sonia Pressman Fuentes shares with me her years dedicated in this fight, her successes, and how we all still have work to do for changes and maintenance in equal rights.

Fuentes is without a doubt a historical American figure for her achievements as an equal rights advocate. Her list of accomplishments go on and on as I remind myself she is an individual who is directly responsible for the laws that allow me to have the same position as a man in the work force. Fuentes is a person who has helped me earn equal pay as my male counterparts. She is an individual we all owe thanks to. However, Fuentes humbly explains to me that she has done something in life she felt passionate about to better the lives for others.

Despite all her successes, this did not come easy for Fuentes. In short, Fuentes fled Nazi Germany with her family in 1933 at the young age of five. As a young woman in America, her parents expected Fuentes to marry out of high school and raise a family, however this was not enough for her. “From the age of ten, I had felt there was a purpose to my life, a mission I had to accomplish, and that I was not free as other girls and women were simply to marry, raise a family and pursue happiness.” Fuentes came to the conclusion that she had a higher calling, explaining “this feeling arose from three factors in my life; I had been born only because my mother’s favored abortionist was out of Berlin, my immediate family and I escaped the Holocaust, and I was bright. I had concluded that I had been saved to make a contribution to the world.” Not knowing exactly what that contribution was going to be at that early age, Fuentes successfully graduated from high school as valedictorian, then Phi Beta Kappa in 1950 from Cornell University.

Fuentes soon decided to move on to law school in 1954, although not with the immediate support from her family. She explains how there were not many female attorneys then, and would often be questioned as to why she would even want to study law. Fuentes explains this was considered a weird thing for a woman to want to do in the 1950’s, to go to law school. Lucky for us, she followed her calling.

Fuentes was recruited by the U.S. Department of Justice for their Honor Law Graduates program where she graduated first in her class. Moving to Washington, D.C. after graduating was the beginning of her 23-year career with numerous federal agencies on civil rights and equality including the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD). “As a Jew who had to escape from Germany and the Holocaust with her immediate family, and as someone who rode through the south as a child with her parents en route to Florida and saw firsthand segregation and discrimination against African Americans in this country (and what I didn’t see, I read about), I have been sensitive all my life to invidious discrimination. Therefore, it was natural that I’d be interested in joining a new agency, the EEOC, whose mission was to process complaints of discrimination.”

As the first female lawyer in the Office of General Council at EEOC in 1965, Fuentes believed in the mission and “found the role” she felt she was meant to play. The organization was to process complaints of discrimination in employment by employers, employment agencies, and labor unions based on race, color, religion, gender, and national origin. However, Fuentes quickly realized that the organization avoided issues of gender discrimination. “I was frustrated by the EEOC’s failure to address gender discrimination issues during it’s early days and this led me to become a feminist activist,” Fuentes explains.



Sonia Pressman Fuentes with President Lyndon Johnson, April 11, 1968. Sonia was invited to the White House when Lyndon Johnson signed the housing bill, April 11, 1968.

In 1966 Fuentes, along with another forty-eight men and woman, formed the National Organization for Woman (NOW), while still with the EEOC. Fuentes describes how she “became involved in an underground activity” meeting in privacy to discuss the weekly “inaction of the Commission (EEOC) that I had witnessed…with regard to woman’s rights.” Letters were sent to her Commission by NOW demanding action be taken by the Commission. “To my amazement, no one at the Commission ever questioned how NOW had become privy to the Commission’s deliberations,” Fuentes explains.

It was Fuentes who fought the airlines for “grounding or terminating stewardesses on marriage or reaching the age limit of thirty-two to thirty-five.” State protective law meant to protect women, were now not only being questioned, but being changed. “In Utah, for example, legislation prohibited women from holding jobs which requited lifting more than fifteen pounds,” explains Fuentes, and other state protective laws where woman could not hold a job as a supervisor because of the long hours, or become a firefighter or police office.

As a feminist, Fuentes has traveled to many countries as an “American specialist” on woman rights for the then U.S. Information Agency. Fuentes traveled to such countries as France, Japan and even her homeland of Germany “giving talks and meeting with women and representative of labor, industry, academia, and the professions, as described in the Veteran Feminists of America salutes Sonia Pressman Fuentes bio.

Since her so called retirement in 1993, Fuentes “embarked on new careers as a writer, public speaker, and community and feminist activist.” She is the author of Eat First-You Don’t Know What They’ll Give You, The Adventures of an Immigrant Family and Their Feminist Daughter,” a memoir of her life’s journey. More recently, this year Fuentes will travel to Antwerp, Belgium as a guest of the Red Star Line Museum scheduled to open in 2013, where there will be a permanent exhibit of her and her family. “We came to the U.S. on the S. S. Westernland, a Red Star Line ship, during the last year the Red Star Line was in operation.”



Sonia Pressman Fuentes inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame in 2000. Sonia Pressman Fuentes (center). In addition, from right to left are Lt. Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Frances Hughes Glendening (First Lady of Maryland), Governor Parris N. Glendening, other awardees, and others involved in the ceremony.

I tried asking Fuentes questions on her opinion regarding current social issue our society faces in comparison to other countries. The witty strong woman wisely answers and reminds me, “We must be careful not to engage in generalizations based on anecdotal experience rather than statistical evidence. “ Fuentes stated this to me as I explained how I feel that sexual harassment has seemingly diminished in our country based on my knowledge and experience, and due to people’s efforts in the fight, such as herself. Fuentes proved me wrong unfortunately, as sexual harassment is still a large problem in America. When it comes to equality issues the U. S. still needs to work on, she gives me a couple stating the need to “ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and sign the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women treaty (CEDAW) http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/. Now roll up your sleeves and get to work people! Take some inspiration from victoriously triumphant Sonia Pressman Fuentes, quite a battle in front of us on.



“I always advise young people that with regard to work, they should follow their passions if they can afford to.” –Sonia Pressman Fuentes