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Sonia was the first woman attorney in the Office of the General Counsel at the headquarters of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in Washington, D.C., in 1965. In 1968, she drafted the opinion for the EEOC finding that U.S. airlines that terminated or grounded stewardesses (now called flight attendants) on marriage or on turning 32 or 35 thereby violated the prohibitions against gender discrimination in employment contained in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, administered by the EEOC. In 2024, a two-hour film was made by filmmaker Susan Colt for PBS's series "American Experience" about the gender discriminatory practices of U.S. airlines vis-à-vis stewardesses. Sonia appears throughout this film. The film may be found on the PBS Website (Click here), or view the video below.
On March 9, 2023, Sonia was interviewed for the Book Club of the Jewish Women's Archive along with Nell McShane Wulfhart, author of The Great Stewardess Rebellion: How Women Launched a Workplace Revolution at 30,000 Feet. That book, published on April 19, 2022, was chosen as one of the top 50 nonfiction books of 2022 by the Washington Post.

That recording is here. To start the recording, click on the picture of Betsy More. To move the recording along, put your mouse near the bottom of the picture on the left and a red line will appear. You can move your mouse along that red line to advance the recording. The recording is credited to the Jewish Women's Archive (JWA).
On March 28, 2022, Sonia was interviewed for the Women's Interfaith Network (WIN), an organization in Sarasota and Manatee counties, Florida, by Susan Boston. The interview was so popular that WIN was asked to send it to all its current members and did so. This video has been edited to remove technical errors.
On Jan. 1, and 2, 2022, on TV stations in various cities in Florida, a segment of an interview of Sonia done in her apt. many months before was shown on a program called “What’s Next,” affiliated with Growing Bolder, a company with various programs for and about seniors. The interview segment shown runs about seven minutes. Bill Shafer, the executive vice president of Growing Bolder, interviewed Sonia.
On Aug. 1, 2021, at its 55th annual conference, NOW honored Sonia and Muriel Fox, the two surviving founders of NOW's founders, and some of NOW's past presidents. This video is of Sonia's brief remarks on this occasion.
On July 7, 2021, Sonia was in the inaugural group of honorees of the 16 over 61 people honored by the Marlene Meyerson Jewish Community Center Manhattan and the Forward newspaper.
On March 31 and April 6, 2021, Sonia testified over Zoom for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s archive of Holocaust Survivors’ Testimonies. She was interviewed by Ina Vazelkis, program coordinator, Department of Oral History. The interview consists of two videos, with a combined running time of 2.31 hours.

On April 27, 2021, Sonia also testified over Zoom for the archive of Holocaust Survivors’ Testimonies of the USC Shoah Foundation established by Stephen Spielberg. She was interviewed by Moira Hamilton, who coordinates the Last Chance Testimony Collection of the Foundation’s Institute for Visual History and Education and manages the remote video production of Holocaust survivors’ stories. Sonia’s interview runs for 3.5 hours.
On April 15, 2021, Sonia gave a talk on her life and work via Zoom to the Oxford and Cambridge Club in London and to its members worldwide.
On March 22, 2021, from 6:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Sonia was one of three panelists at a program on women lawyers for the women law students of the University of Miami School of Law in Coral Gables, FL, Sonia's alma mater. The other two panelists were Patricia Ireland and Judge (ret.) Melvia Green, with Julie Kane serving as moderator.
On March 18, 2021, Sonia gave a talk in commemoration of Women's History Month via Zoom to the Women's Information Network and guests of the Ultimate Medical Academy, an organization that trains people in the health field, at its Tampa, FL location.
On March 4, 2021, Sonia was interviewed for 1 1/4 hours on Zoom by Barb Sander, a friend of Sonia's and a past president of both the Sarasota chapter of the Brandeis Committee and the Committee nationally, at a program of the Adult Education Committee of Temple Emanu-el of Sarasota, FL.
At 7:30 p.m. on July 28, 2019, Sonia was interviewed by Jacqueline Matter, night anchor of the Sarasota, FL ABC-TV channel, about her friendship with the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
On Aug. 8, 2020, Sonia was interviewed over Zoom on a program called "Suffragist Saturdays: In Conversation with Sonia Fuentes" by Meg Gilbert, who is with the Florida Studio Theatre, and is the assistant director of the committee to commemorate the centennial of suffrage for Sarasota. This interview is archival and any broadcast publication needs permission.
On June 8, 2020, Sonia was interviewed by Kate Alexander, an actress and director-at-large of the Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota, Fl. This interview was videotaped by Charles Clapsaddle, station manager of Manatee Educational TV. Kate is head of the local suffrage centennial commemoration committee, on which Sonia serves, and this interview or parts of it is to be part of a longer video to be prepared in connection with the commemoration of the suffrage centennial.

The interview runs about 15-20 minutes. When Sonia completed the interview, she was asked to list some of the major issues facing women in the U.S. and globally and she lists some of those issues at the end of the interview.
Sonia was one of the readers for the annual reading of Holocaust victims' names in a commemoration of the Shoah (Holocaust) by the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, FL on April 21, 2020. Sonia reads for about 10 minutes.
On March 9, 2020, Sonia gave a talk to all the Social Studies classes at the Pine View School. She has the typed script for that talk.
June 12, 2018, interview of Sonia in Sarasota, FL about her relationship to the University of Miami School of Law (her law school alma mater) for its Oral History project by Anthony Stewart, Office of Law Development & Alumni Relations, Director of Development and Annual Giving, University of Miami School of Law. The interview runs 10-15 minutes.
On Jan. 11, 2018, at a meeting of the Ladybugs, the Sarasota chapter of the Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women pilots, Sonia was interviewed by Elina Lunin, president of the Ladybugs. In February of 2018, Sonia and Elina were interviewed on Suncoast FYI by Nancy O'Neil of Sarasota TV station SNN, affiliated with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. That interview went online on Feb. 9, 2018.
Documentary film about abortion made in June 2017 by Carson Saflar, a California high school student, and three of his classmates. Carson is the grandson of longtime friends of Sonia's. Sonia was interviewed for the film and is quoted in it.
Frequently, female students reach out to interview Sonia for projects they have in connection with National Women’s Month or a National Women’s History Day program. On January 26, 2017, Jennifer Cole, a 6th grader from Folsom, CA, interviewed Sonia for a documentary video she was making for a National Women’s History Day Competition about Betty Friedan (whom Sonia knew).

Jennifer’s 10-minute video, Standing Up for the 51 Percent Minority, which quoted Sonia, won the county competition. After Sonia pointed out a number of errors in the video, Jennifer corrected some of them, but not all, and entered the revised video in the state competition, which was held on the weekend of May 6-7, 2017. She was a finalist in the state competition, but did not move on to the national competition. This video is no longer available online.
On Feb. 21, 2017, Sarasota TV Channel SNN (Suncoast News Network), seen in Sarasota and Manatee counties, showed the film of its staffer, Marco La Manna, interviewing Sonia.
On Nov. 21, 2016, Sonia gave a 30-minute talk to the Holocaust Studies class at the Pine View School for the Gifted in Sarasota, FL. The video of that talk is no longer available but Sonia has her typed notes for this talk.
On Aug. 28, 2016, at 10:00 a.m., guest host Joan Lowery's 45-minute interview of Sonia was broadcast on radio program Milk & Honey, sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee, on radio station WSRQ Talk Radio. Joan Lowery's interviews on Milk & Honey are Holocaust-related. The interview was also videotaped and sent to the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg.
Sonia's speech to WIN (Women in Nielsen) on June 16, 2015, on the women's rights movement at Nielsen's largest facility in the world in Oldsmar, FL.
Interview of Sonia by Christa Whitney, director of the Wexler Oral History Project of the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA. The interview, which focuses on Sonia's Jewish identity and her family, runs 1 hour and 51 minutes and was conducted in Sonia's condo in Sarasota, FL on Feb. 6, 2015. You can see a 7-minute excerpt of that interview dealing with the Red Star Line (RSL) and the RSL Museum. View the videotaped excerpt.
On Oct. 23, 2014, at the IIT-Kent College of Law in Chicago, Sonia was a panelist at a program in Chicago by the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) commemorating the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and, in particular Title VII of that Act, which prohibits discrimination in employment, and, more particularly, the early flight cabin attendant (stewardess) cases.
On Feb. 26, 2014, Sonia and Judy Norsigian, executive director of Our Bodies Ourselves, were interviewed for thirty minutes by Luz Corcuera of Healthy Start--Bradenton on METV (Manatee Educational TV).
Interview of Sonia by Beverly Newman of the Al Katz [Holocaust] Center in Sarasota, FL, for the Center's Oral Interviews of Holocaust Survivors Collection, May 13, 2013.
Interview of Sonia by Catharine Skipp, Director of Media Relations, University of Miami School of Law, after Sonia gave a luncheon talk there to women faculty members and students on April 22, 2013.
Fifteen-minute video of Sonia’s remarks on April 21, 2013, at the Jewish Museum of Florida in Miami Beach, Florida, on being one of five Jewish professional women in the State of Florida to receive the Glass Ceiling Award in 2013 for breaking the glass ceiling for herself and other women.
Sonia’s acceptance remarks at NOW’s annual conference on receiving an award for being a cofounder of NOW, Tampa, FL, June 2011. (Initial remarks are missing.)
Interview for Yiddishlives.com (January 2, 2011)
Short video by Xlilbris, Sonia's publisher (2009)
YouTube clip on Sonia's role in the founding of NOW from a video by Jamie Spooner and Carolyn Mayes for the series The Wisdom of Elders Across America.
In 2008, Sonia made brief remarks at the Veteran Feminists of America's Salute to Feminist Lawyers at the Harvard Club in NYC.

Audio Links

Sonia Pressman Fuentes

Interview of Sonia at Temple Emanu-el in Sarasota, FL

On March 4, 2021, Sonia was interviewed for 1 1/4 hours on Zoom by Barb Sander, a friend of Sonia's and a past president of both the Sarasota chapter of the Brandeis Committee and the Committee nationally, at a program of the Adult Education Committee of Temple Emanu-el of Sarasota, FL.

You can watch the video below: