Eat First -- You Don't Know What They'll Give You

by Sonia Pressman Fuentes

EAT FIRST--YOU DONT KNOW WHAT THEYLL GIVE YOU, written with warmth and humor, is the story of Sonia Pressman Fuentes, one of the pioneers of the Second Wave of the womens movement and her family. Fuentes, who was born in Berlin, Germany, came to the US with her immediate family to escape the Holocaust. Her memoirs reveal how the five-year-old immigrant in 1934 became 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 GTE and TRW, and an international speaker on womens 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. At forty-two, she married a handsome Puerto Rican and 1 years later, her Puerto Rican Jewish daughter was born. She tells about it all in Eat First.

"I walk in the footprints of Sonia Pressman Fuentes."

--Patricia Ireland, 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 womens 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 in Residence, National Association for Women in Education

"I referred to you just the other day (as I frequently do)

as one of the `great, unsung heroes of the womens 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

For more reviews and interviews with the author of Eat First--You Dont Know What Theyll Give You, please visit

340 pages, Hardcover

First published November 24, 1999

Reviews

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captivating, insightful, inspiring and funny.

[Veronica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Normally the books I get pitches for are new and about to come out. Today I present you with a book that is now ten years old, but is better than most memoirs at your local big box bookstore.

Eat First - You Don't Know What They'll Give You: The Adventures of an Immigrant Family & Their Feminist Daughter by Sonia Pressman Fuentes is actually more of a family memoir than a personal memoir. Most notably, Sonia is one the founders of the National Organization for Women (NOW). As a small child, she fled Nazi Germany with her parents and older brother and settled in New York. We not only learn the trials of growing up in a new culture, but also the back story of her parents' marriage, which may explain why Sonia has such a hard time with her own relationships.

When I meet "famous" people, I try to remember that they are just human beings like me. They just did extraordinary things or perhaps just in the right place at the right time. While I may fawn over someone like Sonia, it's comforting to know her human side. But she certainly did some extraordinary things!

That said, the memoir jumps around time. One page you are reading about someone's death and the next chapter opens with a story about that person. There are a lot of very short stories, more like anecdotes about various people in her life. So while I felt the structure was not of the usual memoir, it read nicely. It does start off a bit slow with her parents' background, but once I realized how central they are to her life and thus the entire memoir it was an easier read for me. I can be quite an impatient reader.

This book is part women's history, part Jewish history, part memoir and part a study in family relationships.

It's a must read for those interested in the origins of the largest feminist group in the USA as well as a simple story of a little Jewish girl who moves to the USA and grows up to be quite the giant slayer.

[Chai · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delight to have found and read this book! it's totally awesome--and now I need to write Sonia Pressman a letter and invite her back to the EEOC for a visit!

[Mills College Library]

Biog F955f 1999