Sonia Pressman Fuentes
Sonia P. Fuentes | |
|---|---|
| Born | Sonia Pressman[1] May 30, 1928 Berlin, Germany |
| Died | December 20, 2025 (aged 97) Sarasota, Florida, United States of America |
| Education | Cornell University (BA) University of Miami (LLB) |
| Occupations | Lawyer, writer |
Sonia Pressman Fuentes (May 30, 1928 – December 20, 2025) was a Polish-Jewish American author, speaker, feminist leader, and lawyer.
Early years and education
[edit]Fuentes was born in Berlin, Germany, to Polish-Jewish parents[2] 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][4]
In early 1970s, she married Roberto Fuentes, a Chief of the Biostatistics Division with the District of Columbia Department of Human Resources. They had one daughter, Zia Fuentes Jones,[citation needed] born in 1972.[2]
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.[5]
Fuentes was 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).[6] Her articles on women's rights and other subjects have been published in newspapers, magazines, and journals in the U.S. and other countries.[citation needed]
She was a member of the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame.[3] Since 1994, she resided in Sarasota, Florida.[7]
Her papers are archived in the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University.[8]
Later life and death
[edit]Fuentes died on December 20, 2025, at the age of 97.[9]
Awards
[edit]- Foremother Award from the National Center for Health Research.[10]
References
[edit]- ^ Commencement program of the University of Miami, June 10, 1957
- ^ a b "Sonia Pressman Fuentes, MSA SC 3520-13613". Maryland State Archives.
- ^ a b "Sonia Pressman Fuentes". Maryland Women's Hall of Fame. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
- ^ Strebeigh 2009, p. 115.
- ^ Banaszak, Lee Ann (2010). The Women's Movement Inside and Outside the State. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-13286-2. pp. 126-127.
- ^ Fuentes, Sonia Pressman (November 24, 1999). Eat First -- You Don't Know What They'll Give You: The Adventures of an Immigrant Family and Their Feminist Daughter. Xlibris. ISBN 978-1-4628-1462-6.
- ^ Fuentes, Sonia Pressman, Letter to the Editor, SRQ Daily, July 9, 2013.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Collection: Papers of Sonia Pressman Fuentes, ca.1929-2009 (Inclusive), 1955-2009 (Bulk) | HOLLIS for".
- ^ Gabriel, Trip (April 25, 2026). "Sonia Pressman Fuentes, Early Women's Rights Lawyer, Dies at 97". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-04-25.
- ^ "Foremother and Health Policy Hero Awards Luncheon". May 7, 2018.
Bibliography
[edit]- Strebeigh, Fred (February 13, 2009). Equal: Women Reshape American Law. W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-06555-8.
Further reading
[edit]- Cox, Billy (September 23, 2013). "Feminist returns to Belgium, site of Holocaust escape". Sarasota: HeraldTribune.com.
- "Sonia Pressman Fuentes". Maryland Women's Hall of Fame. Maryland State Archives.
External links
[edit]| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- 1928 births
- 20th-century American non-fiction writers
- 20th-century American women writers
- Jewish American non-fiction writers
- American women lawyers
- American women non-fiction writers
- National Organization for Women people
- People from Sarasota, Florida
- Jewish American feminists
- Jewish American women writers
- American people of Polish-Jewish descent
- Cornell University alumni
- University of Miami School of Law alumni
- Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States
- Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States
- 21st-century American Jews
- 21st-century American women
- American women founders
- American founders
- American women human rights activists
- 2025 deaths