Sarasota's Sonia Pressman Fuentes to Receive Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award

The Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU, the only museum dedicated to the story of 250 years of Florida Jewish heritage, arts and culture, is proud to announce the winners of the 17^th Annual “Breaking the Glass Ceiling” Awards for five women who have been successful in fields generally dominated by men.

This year’s winners are:

• Judge Jeri Beth Cohen (Miami)
• Sherryl Susan Evans (Tampa)
• Sonia Pressman Fuentes (Sarasota)
• Marilyn Hoder-Salmon (Miami)
• Betsy Kaplan (Miami)

In 1965, Sonia Pressman Fuentes of Sarasota 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. In 1966, she became one of 49 founders of the National Organization of Women. She was co-founder of both Federally Employed Women and the Women's Equity Action League, a charter member of the Veteran Feminists of America, and a longtime board member of the National Woman's Party. In addition to more than 20 years as an attorney with the federal government, she was the highest paid woman at the headquarters of multinational corporations GTE and TRW. 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 Daughter. Inspired by her own Polish family’s immigration story of fleeing Berlin in 1933, Fuentes says that her identity as an immigrant is central to her lifelong commitment to equity and inclusion.

Each of the winners will be honored during the museum’s award reception and ceremony which will include presentations made by the honorees describing the obstacles and inspirations they encountered on their individual journeys to success. The program is scheduled for 3 p.m., Sunday, April 21 at the museum, which is located at 301 Washington Ave. in Miami Beach.

The award ceremony will include light refreshments. Cost for museum members is $15, non-members is $20 and students is $5. For reservations, contact 786-972-3175 or info@jewishmuseum.com