Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/114013
Sarasota News Leader March 8, 2013 Page 65 PRESSMAN TO BE HONORED WITH BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING AWARD The Jewish Museum of Florida-Florida International University (FIU) has announced that Sonia Pressman Fuentes is one of five winners of the 17th Annual Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award for women who have been successful in fields generally dominated by men. Each of the winners will be honored during a reception and ceremony at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 21, at the museum, which is located at 301 Washington Ave. in Miami Beach. The event will include presentations by the honorees describing the obstacles and inspirations they encountered on their individual journeys to success, a news release says. In 1965, Fuentes joined the General Counsel's office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as its first woman attorney. She drafted one of the EEOC's earliest Digests of Legal Interpretations, its first Guidelines on Pregnancy and Childbirth and the decision protecting employment rights of stewardesses, the release points out. Sonia Fuentes/Contributed photo "A woman of great energy and zest, she began a second career after retirement, lecturing on women's rights worldwide and writing a lively autobiography, Eat First – You Don't Know What They'll Give You: The Adventures of an Immigrant Family and Their Feminist In 1966, she became one of 49 founders of the Daughter," the release adds. National Organization of Women. She was Inspired by her own Polish family's immigraco-founder of both Federally Employed Wom- tion story after fleeing Berlin in 1933, Fuentes en and the Women's Equity Action League, says her identity as an immigrant is central to and she was a charter member of the Veteran her lifelong commitment to equity and incluFeminists of America as well as a longtime sion, the release says. board member of the National Woman's Party, The other honorees are as follows: the release notes. • Judge Jeri Beth Cohen, a dependency In addition to more than 20 years as an atcourt judge in the State of Florida 11th torney with the federal government, she was Judicial Circuit, began her service on the the highest paid woman at the headquarters bench in the criminal division at a time of multinational corporations GTE and TRW, when few women held judiciary positions in Miami-Dade County. the release says.