CANON CITY, Colo., March 17, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- When many people think of the women's rights movement, images of 1960s protest marches often come to mind. In reality, thousands of women began fighting for women's rights much earlier. In Freda R. Stumpf's new book, Somebody Had to Do It: A Woman's Journey in a Man's World (now available through 1stBooks), she tells of her lifelong battle for equality in a male-dominated society.
Stumpf's first encounter with sexism occurred in 1941 at the height of World War II. When she tried to enroll in an architecture class, four architects met to discuss whether to allow her to enroll. They agreed only because so many men were off to war. From there, Stumpf gained more experience working on city projects and eventually was hired to do technical illustrations in 1951.
She endured severely unequal pay and coworkers' attempts to get her fired. She left a job she loved to work for a civil engineer who paid her what she was worth. She owned her own technical illustrating business at a time when it was difficult for women to even work independently at a company.
Stumpf tackled women's rights issues outside the workplace as well. She sued a Colorado city for preventing her to move onto her own property and pushed to make state statute books available to the general public and not just lawyers, judges and prisoners.
Somebody Had to Do It is the true story of a woman who found herself in the center of her own battle for women's equality and won.
Stumpf was born in Brooklyn Heights, Ohio near Cleveland. After working on her father's produce farm, she took 15 years of night classes in architecture, technical illustration, hydraulics and art. Somebody Had to Do It is her first book.
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