[6] After the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) determined that AP was violating the 1964 Civil Rights Act (only 7% of the AP's reporters were women in 1973), Lewine together with Shirley Christian and five other women reporters filed a complaint with the EEOC.

"[8] The Journalism and Women Symposium described her question as follows:[5]...she asked President Gerald Ford at a televised news conference whether he agreed with the administration's guidelines urging federal officials not to patronize segregated facilities.

Then Fran asked him why he played golf every week at Burning Tree Country Club, which still refused to admit women at that time.

Ford treated the question as a joke, and quickly moved on to another reporter, but the White House and Lewine's editors at AP were angry.

She expressed disappointment in her own assignments at the White House, where she reported on social events and stories about the first family, noting that she was not allowed to cover the president as were her male colleagues.