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Sonia Pressman Fuentes |
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"Imagine having changed the course of history. Sonia Pressman Fuentes . . . , one of the founders of the National Organization for Women (NOW) along with Betty Friedan and others, actually did . . . Her story could have been told in anger or bitterness, but that's not Fuentes' personal, or literary, style.
"It's my way of looking at life," she says. "My life wasn't funny. I just tell it that way."
-- Miami Magazine, Fall 2000
reviewing Fuentes' popular memoir,
Eat First -- You Don't Know What They'll Give You |
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In its October 2005 newsletter, Xlibris, the publisher of Eat First--You Don't Know What They'll Give You, congratulated Sonia Pressman Fuentes for being "[o]ne of the most successful Xlibris authors ever." |
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Sonia Pressman Fuentes: |
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A child who emigrated from Nazi Germany, arriving in New York with her parents and brother in 1934 |
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First woman attorney in the Office of the General Counsel at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) |
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Co-founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and Federally Employed Women (FEW) |
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Speaker on women's rights issues before audiences in the U.S., Europe and Asia |
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Featured in the Gallery of Prominent Refugees established by the U. N. High Commissioner for Refugees in 2000 |
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One of five women inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame for the year 2000 - Click
here
for photo |
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Included in What Happened to the Children Who Fled Nazi Persecution (2006), Feminists
Who Changed America, 1963-1975 (2006) and Women
of Achievement in Maryland History (2002). |
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Author of the memoir: Eat First -- You Don't Know What They'll Give You, The Adventures of an Immigrant Family and Their Feminist Daughter |
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Home: Feminism: Sonia Pressman Fuentes |
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 Eat First --
You Don't Know What They'll Give You, The Adventures of
an Immigrant Family and Their Feminist Daughter
by
Sonia Pressman Fuentes
Book Ordering Information
In the United States, EAT FIRST can be ordered in paperback and hardback from amazon.com, bn.com and borders.com. Outside the US, it can also be ordered from amazon.co.uk and amazon.ca.
On Sept. 23, 2008, Sonia was one of three feminists on “Women Matters,” a weekly program on community radio station WSLR in Sarasota, FL, who discussed the founding and early days of NOW. To listen to a recording of the entire program, click here.
On June 9, 2008, Sonia was one of 36 feminist lawyers honored by the Veteran Feminists of America at an all-day program at the Harvard Club in New York City for their contributions to women’s rights during the 1963-75 time frame.
Summer 2008: Congratulatory letters from the presidents of Cornell University and the University of Miami (FL)
On Dec. 7, 2007, Sonia was made the first honorary member of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers, Sarasota chapter (established in 1984), in its history for "her lifelong dedication to the progression of women's rights." See "Feminist Icon Accepts Sarasota-FAWL's Honorary Membership" in the February 2008 issue of The Docket, the newspaper of the Sarasota County (FL) Bar Association.
In July 2008, she was made a Commissioner of the Sarasota Commission on the Status of Women.
Sonia was honored October 30, 2007, by the Veteran Feminists of America (VFA) at a program at the headquarters of the National
Woman's Party, the Sewall-Belmont House, in Washington, D.C., as one of 140 pioneer feminists who lived or worked in the Washington, D.C., area from 1963-1975 and made significant contributions to women's rights. She was honored by VFA again at a June 9, 2008, program at the Harvard Club in NYC as one of about 30 feminist lawyers, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who made significant contributions to women’s rights in the 1960s and ‘70s.
National Organization of Women (NOW) -- Sonia is included in two sections of NOW's history web site.
Sonia will be featured in Wavelength, an upcoming documentary film on the Second Wave of the women’s movement. For information on the film or to arrange to show it, contact the filmmaker, Jennifer H. Lee, at jennifer.lee@thomson.net
At a Mother's Day luncheon of the National Research Center for Women & Families in Washington, D.C., on May 6, 2005, Sonia
was one of 10 women honorees celebrated as foremothers for improving women's lives.
On March 18, 2005, Sonia was one of four recipients of the Immigrant Achievement Award of the American Immigration Law Foundation.
To see a video of Sonia’s acceptance speech, click here and scroll down to the “View video” at the bottom of the screen.
Sonia was featured in the August 5, 2004, issue of the University of Miami Alumni E-Newsletter (she is an alumna of the law school) as follows:
Featured Alumna Sonia Pressman Fuentes Leader of the Women's Movement Isn't Slowing Down
For most immigrants fleeing Nazi Germany in the early 1930's, America was a land of freedom and opportunity that usually came with the price of hard times and hard work that left little room for philosophical or social conviction. Not so for Sonia Pressman Fuentes, JD '57, who even today is continuing to work hard in support of her convictions. Fuentes is one of the most lively and active feminist public speakers and authors today, not allowing herself to rest on the laurels of her past accomplishments or slow down in the twilight of her life. From being the first female attorney in the Office of General Counsel at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to being one of the co-founders of the National Organization of Women (NOW), Fuentes continues today to be driven and energetic in her pursuit of women's rights. Recently, Sonia has been traveling the globe and continuing her experiential education in culture, society, and the arts. She has also spoken on behalf of candidates supportive of the women's movement, and will be featured in an upcoming documentary by Jennifer Lee regarding a revival and the second wave of the women's movement. Her memoir, Eat First. You Don't Know What They'll Give You; The Adventures of an Immigrant Family and their Feminist Daughter continues to be a popular and inspirational selection for all people in all walks of life...
EAT FIRST--YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'LL GIVE YOU, written with
warmth and humor, is the story of Sonia Pressman Fuentes, one
of the pioneers of the Second Wave of the women's movement, and
her family.
Sonia
Pressman Fuentes, who was born in Berlin, Germany, came to the
US as a child with her immediate family to escape the Holocaust.
Her memoirs reveal how this five-year-old immigrant in 1934
grew up to become the first woman attorney in the Office of
the General Counsel at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) in 1965, one of the founders of the National Organization
for Women (NOW) in 1966, the highest-paid woman at the headquarters
of two multinational corporations--GTE and TRW, and an international
speaker on women's rights for the US Information Agency.
The story begins with the wedding of Fuentes' parents, Hinda
and Zysia Pressman, in Piltz, a town in Poland. It goes on to
the adventures of the Pressmans and Fuentes in Berlin, Antwerp,
the Bronx, the Catskills, Miami Beach, Los Angeles, Cleveland,
Stamford (Connecticut), and Washington, DC. Along the way, Fuentes
had encounters with Pat Ward (a notorious call girl in the '50s),
Betty Friedan, Harry Golden, Dr. Cecil Jacobson (a prominent
geneticist convicted on fifty-two counts of perjury and fraud),
and many others.
"Sonia
Fuentes writes about an unexpected range of subjects, yet somehow
they remain always linked to her roots in the Yiddish world
of Eastern European Jews. Once that is understood, the traditional
interconnections between her several worlds make perfect sense
as one woman's reflection on the ways in which family, society,
culture, and political engagement have always lived in creative
tension--whether in the world of Fuentes' forebears or in
the exciting one of our own." -- Tom Freudenheim, then-Deputy
Director, Jewish Museum, Berlin, Germany
"I
love your book. It arrived yesterday, and as I began to check
it out, I couldn't stop reading it. The business of Jewish geography
really got to me. As a rather unreconstructed, chauvinist Jewish
girl from Milwaukee, I have played the 'Do you know' game all
my life. Often with great success and pleasure. Thank
you for sending the copy to us. I am so pleased to have it for
our collection." -- Barbara Haber, Curator of Books, Schlesinger
Library on the History of Women in America (at Radcliffe College)
"Evoking
a tear here and a chuckle there, with her heart-warming wit
and wisdom, Sonia Pressman Fuentes recounts the story of a Jewish
family, her family, from her grandparents' origin in a shtettl
in Poland right through her own career as a founder of NOW
and beyond." --Gus Tyler, columnist, contributing editor, The
Forward
An excerpt
from Eat First, called "Coming to America,"
is included in the anthology Matzoh
Ball Soup,  A
Collection of Personal Stories, Poems, and Rabbinical Sermons
That Inspires the Jewish Spirit, by Oliver Kramer and Joshua
Kramer, published in November 2002.
Eat First
was required reading in the spring 2000 semester in the
School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University
in a course on writing about minorities (including women) in
America. Ms. Fuentes gave talks to two classes at Cornell
in April 2000.
Sonia has
lectured on "How Being an Immigrant Shaped My Life"
at Cornell University and other venues. An abbreviated version
of her talk on this subject is included in 120
HIAS Stories published in July 2002 to commemorate the
120th anniversary of HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society). A longer version was published in April 2006 in Women in Judaism, a Multidisciplinary Journal (available in html and pdf formats). It was most recently published in the January 2007 issue of the Sarasota-Manatee Jewish News and is also available on the website of the Museum of Family History.
In the spring
2001 semester, Eat First was required reading at American
University in Washington, D.C., in a course on Writers in Print
and in Person.
Ms.
Fuentes is included in the Gallery of Prominent Refugees created
in 2000 by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to commemorate
its 50th anniversary. She is included in Women of Achievement
in Maryland History, a reference book published in October
2002 and distributed to public and private schools, libraries,
religious institutions, and private service organizations in
Maryland.
Eat
First was recommended in May 2000 by Ofrah's
Jewish Book Club. Click here
to read the review.
Eat
First is one of the listed books for the
Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press.
There is a 7-part piece entitled "Sonia's Story,"
about Eat First and Ms. Fuentes at
About.com.
Fuentes
was one of nine authors who have published e-books who were
profiled in the May 2001 issue of Publishing Success,
a publication of the Writer's Digest. Click
HERE to read the interview online.
Fuentes is included in John Kremer's Self-Publishers Hall of Fame, Distinguished Women of Past and Present, the Hall of Fame of HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), the International Who's Who of Professional and Business Women (7th ed. 2000), Who's Who in American Law (2005-2006 edition), and in Who's Who in Sarasota. She will also be included in Great Women of the 21st Century to be published in 2008 by the American Biographical Institute and has been nominated for inclusion in the American Biographical Institute's Women of the Year-A Celebrated Collection of Biographies, also set for publication in 2008.
Fuentes
is a member of the Board of Editors of Women
in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal.
You
can read a summary of Eat First with excerpts at Sunshine
for Women. Sunshine for Women explores women's history,
feminist theology, women's contributions to art, music, literature,
reproductive rights, global feminism and more. Visit the
Sunshine for
Women homepage for a list of features.
On
October 12, 2001, Sonia gave the keynote address at the 20th
anniversary celebration/retreat of the Women Lawyers of Utah
in Deer
Park, Utah. Her talk. "The
Women's Rights Movement: Where It's Been,
Where It's At" is on a website for professors, researchers,
administrators and librarians of women's studies programs.
Eat
First is one of Xlibris' bestsellers, and is available in
paperback,
hardback
and as an ebook.
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Sonia
Pressman Fuentes |
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Sonia Pressman
Fuentes graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell University in
1950 and first in her class at the University of Miami School
of Law in 1957. She had a 36-year career as an attorney and
executive with the federal government and multinational corporations.
She drafted many of the EEOC's initial landmark guidelines and
decisions. In addition to being one of the founders of NOW,
she was also a founder of the Women's Equity Action League (WEAL)
and Federally Employed Women (FEW). In November 1996, Betty
Friedan presented her with the Veteran Feminists of America
(VFA) Medal of Honor in recognition of her efforts to improve
the status of women.
Currently, she serves on the advisory committee of VFA. Since
her retirement in 1993, she has pursued an active career as
a writer and public speaker.
On October 10, 1999, Ms. Fuentes was one of four recipients of the 1999
Women at Work Award given by Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW).
WOW, a nationwide organization based in Washington, DC, has
programs to help women and their families achieve economic self-sufficiency.
Fuentes received the award for her commitment to women's issues
and her leadership in the fields of law and business. Prior
awardees include Glenn Close, Jane Fonda, Katie Couric, and
Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"I
walk in the footprints of Sonia Pressman Fuentes."
--Patricia Ireland, then-president, NOW
"Evoking a tear here and a chuckle there, with her heart-warming
wit and wisdom, Sonia Pressman Fuentes recounts the story of
a Jewish family, her family, from her grandparents' origin in
a shtettl in Poland right through her own career as a founder
of NOW and beyond." --Gus Tyler, columnist, contributing
editor, The Forward
"Sonia Pressman Fuentes played a major role in the birth
of the new women's movement and her tales of its early days
will delight historians and those who are curious about the
beginnings of this great social movement. Fuentes is a born
story-teller, with a particular knack for seeing the humorous
aspects of her life." --Dr. Bernice Sandler, Senior Scholar,
Women's Research and Education Institute
"I
referred to you just the other day (as I frequently do) as one
of the `great, unsung heroes' of the women's and civil rights
movements. You single-handedly persuaded Roosevelt, Edelsberg,
me and others to take sex discrimination seriously which, without
you, we would not have done." --Charles T. Duncan, former
General Counsel, EEOC; former Corporation Counsel of the District
of Columbia; former Dean, Howard University School of Law
"As I really realized how bad off women were by the mid-70's, I was appalled, . . . . The champion of women at that time...was Sonia Pressman. She fought the airlines. She fought for the airline stewardesses...She was an EEOC attorney...But Sunny' Pressman...was small and she was dynamic, and don't get in her way. She was one of the gentlest souls you'd ever want to meet, but she was as tough as nails. She took on the airlines and the cause of the flight attendants. Sunny' Pressman is almost single-handedly responsible for flight attendants being married, for their being over 30 and working." -- Dorothy Howze, Making a Right a Reality: An Oral History of the Early Years of the EEOC, 1965-72 (EEOC, 1990).
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- The News from Monticello Central School District, October 2008 (pdf. file, p. 8)
- The Barrister, Spring 2008 Alumni Magazine, Volume LIX Number 3
- By Bill Hutchinson, HeraldTribune.com, June 9, 2008
- By
Kristen J. Tsetsi, Journal Inquirer, March 31, 2008
- By Evelyn L. Moya, The Docket, February 2008
- By Ruth Lando, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, July 1, 2007
- By Steven A. Bibb, Passages, Summer 2007
- By Marsha Fottler, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, May 12, 2007
- By Erica Brody, National Council of Jewish Women Journal, Winter 2006 (pdf. file)
- Featured Author, Xlibris, November, 2006
- By Susan Weidman Schneider, The Reporter (Spring 2006, Vol. 55, No. 2, p. 10), a publication of Women's American ORT
- By Jacqueline Sternberg, Washington Jewish Week, April 28, 2005
- By Ken Millstone, The Potomac Almanac, October 13-19, 2004
- By Jeanette Friedman, Lifestyles Magazine, Fall 2003 (pdf file)
- By Sheri' McConnell, National Association of Women Writers, May 2003
- By Sylvia Danovitch, Women in Judaism: Contemporary Writings, June 2003
- By Michael Pollick, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, November 25, 2002
- By Magdalena Ball, The Compulsive Reader, July 2002
- By Pippa Brush, Expository magazine, June 15, 2002
- By the Editor of WomenWriters.net, June 2002
- By Ann Corcoran Ericsson, Mady Radio, 2001. Click here to listen to the interview.
- By Phil Fink, radio interview on Shalom America, WELW 1330 AM, Cleveland, Ohio, Feb. 3, 2002 (not available on the www)
- By Nate, editor of Jewhoo.com
- By Nikki Katz of about.com on women's issues
- By Norman Simms, Chadashot, August 2001
- By Bill Adams, The Senior News, July 2001
- By Jenna Glatzer, WriteRead University, May 14, 2001
- Publishing Success Magazine, May 2001
- By Barbara Ruben, Senior Beacon, October 2000
- By Lynn Laframboise, Word Wrangler Publishing, February 2000
- Shalom, newspaper for the Reading, PA, Jewish community, February 2000
- By Linda Eberharter, Bridge Works Publishing, January 2000
- By Marlena Thompson, Washington Jewish Week, December 16, 1999
- By Linda Davis Kyle, "Writers Around the World," August 1998
- By Eva S., "Evenings with Eva," July 21, 1998
- By Ellen Joan Pollock, Wall Street Journal, May 1998
- By Sylvia Danovitch, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), December 27, 1990
- By Betty Friedan, It Changed My Life: Readings on the Women’s Movement, 1976
- Courier-Times, Bucks County, PA, June 25, 1970
- Courant, Hartford, CT, December 7, 1966
- By Sylvia Porter, Post-Crescent, May 28, 1963
- By Susie Marbey, The Miami Hurricane, May 10, 1957
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- If
You Speak His Language --
This piece was published in Tzum Punkt (Nov.-Dec. 1999, Vol. 1, No. 2) p. 5, the newsletter of Yiddish of Greater Washington.
- Thai
Silk --
This piece was first published in the Common Law Lawyer and then on the websites of whispersmagazine.com, iagora.com, and BankgokAtoZ.com
(September 2001).
- Florida
and Beyond -- This excerpt appeared on May 25, 2001, in
the
Story Lady e-newsletter and on its website,
the Jewish Frontier, the Jewish Internet
magazine, the Jewish Magazine online, the e-zine,
Home-Based Working Moms, and the Writer Online.
Terry Boothman, the editor of the Writer Online,
had this to say about it in the January 14, 2003, issue that
carried the story:
Everyone's
life is interesting, right? Sure. So, everyone should write
a memoir, right? Yeah, why not.. And everyone should publish
a memoir, right? Good Lord, no. Because not everyone knows
how to write a publishable memoir, which means a memoir
that lots of other people will enjoy reading. Sonia Pressman
Fuentes, one of the founders of the National Organization
for Women, published just such a memoir--"Eat First--You
Don't Know What They'll Give You, The Adventures of an Immigrant
Family and Their Feminist Daughter." Now, in How I
Got My Mink Stole, excerpted from that memoir, you can get
a glimpse of exactly how good memoirs are written.
- Weinberg's
Glasses - the story of what happened when Sonia's father found a pair of eyeglasses.
- Sex
Maniac -- the story of the Second Wave of the women's
movement and Fuentes' role in it.
- Harry
Golden and "the Coat" -- Sonia Fuentes sues
Harry Golden, published in Jewish Currents, June 16,
1997.
- How
I Got My Mink Stole -- a lengthy struggle with an
unexpected denouement.
- Eating
Out -- published in the April 11, 2001, issue of Writer's
Bloc Online, the e-newsletter of the National Writers
Union.
- Graduating
With My Class -- Fuentes' desire to graduate with her
high school class has a significant consequence. Published
originally in the Catskill/Hudson Jewish Star 6.2 (June 1996)
17.1 and then on Harry
Leichter's website.
- Mother and the Night School -- published in the December 2001, issue of Kolot, A World of Jewish Voices.
- Catskills Stories -- Some of Fuentes' stories about her experiences in the Catskill Mountains of New York State may be found at the Museum of Family History.
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Sonia starts a Yiddish club in Sarasota, FL. |
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Fuentes
participates in a seder in a most unlikely city, Shanghai, China.
This piece appeared previously in JoyZine and on Harry
Leichter's website. |
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"Three Legendary
Feminists" is about Fuentes' most memorable encounters with Alice
Paul, the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray, and Catherine East.
Essay
Includes:
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Sonia had a difficult time adjusting to retirement, and then she entered the best years of her life.
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This article, by Fuentes, recalling
the saga of her trip to the Thomas Edison and Henry Ford estates
in Ft. Myers, FL, appeared in The East County Observer,
a newspaper in East Manatee and Sarasota Counties, Florida,
January 16, 2003. |
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A transcript of Fuentes’ talk, delivered on Oct. 8, 2002, at the Takoma Park, MD, campus of Montgomery College is available here.
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This article is about Fuentes' August 2001 journey to her parents' birthplace, a village called Piltz in Poland. |
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Along with
a manicure, a reminder of how immigrants revitalize our nation.
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Research Leads to Ship's Records, a Movie and Snapshots.
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"House of History," a history of the Sewall-Belmont House, one
of the oldest houses on Capitol Hill, is the story of the current
headquarters of the National Woman's Party. |
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"Surviving
Cancer," the story of Fuentes' experience with breast cancer.
For Fuentes' experiences with breast implants, see:
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This is
the story of the six years Fuentes spent in researching, writing,
publishing and marketing her memoir and making the transition
from being a lawyer to a writer and public speaker.
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This article is published on a Web site called "Women and the Holocaust."
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eBook
Ordering Information
EAT
FIRST may also be ordered as an e-book for downloading for $5.
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Ebook
File Type: pdf
ISBN: 0-7443-0231-5
Price: $5.00
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Contact
Ms. Fuentes at: spfuentes@comcast.net
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CD Ordering Information
Order the eBook on CD-ROM for $9.95, including shipping and handling:
Mail payment to:
Erratic Impact
Attention: Fuentes eBook
473 Games Dr
Reno, NV 89509
DON'T FORGET: For all mail orders to Erratic Impact, include:
Your Mailing Address
Your Telephone Number
Check or Money Order (U.S. Funds, payable to Erratic Impact)
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Fuentes -- Photographs |
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Germany, 1931
Berlin Shop, 1931
Germany, 1932
Belgium, 1934
Cornell, 1950
University of Miami, 1956
Washington, DC, 1966
Washington, DC, 1993
Coral Gables, 1990s
Sarasota, 1990s
Plainfield, 1998
Women's Hall of Fame
At the Capitol, 2000
Meadows Players, 2001
Piltz Library, 2001
Piltz, Poland, 2001
Sarasota, March 2002
Sarasota, April 2002
Lewin Studio, 2003
Alice Award, 2003
Book Signing, 2003
Teaching English, 2003
Book Bag Replica, 2004
AILF Awards, 2005
Foremothers Awards, 2005
IAYC Conference, 2005
Alice Paul Award, 2005
National Woman's Party, 2006
Potomac, MD, 2006
Bozeman, MT, 2007
CLEA Course, 2007
Cornell University, 2008
Siesta Key, FL, 2008
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