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Sonia Pressman Fuentes

Sonia (center) with the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray (in red) and Dr. Bernice (Bunny) Sandler (wearing a white jacket), circa 1965-73. This is from the Archival Collections, Women in the Legal Profession, at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.

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Papers of Sonia Pressman Fuentes, ca.1929-1990

Sonia Pressman Fuentes was born in 1928 in Berlin, Germany. In 1933, she left Germany with her parents to escape the Nazis and moved to Antwerp, Belgium. In April 1934, they immigrated to the United States and eventually settled in the Catskills in New York State. In 1950, she graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in liberal arts. In 1957, she graduated summa cum laude from the University of Miami Law School. From 1965 to 1973, Fuentes became the first woman to work for the Office of General Counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She later became the chief of the Legislative Counsel Division of the General Counsel's Office. Her responsibilities included enforcing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. Fuentes attended the 1966 organizing conference for the National Organization for Women (NOW) and helped found other feminist organizations.