Information

Who was Chien-Shiung Wu?

Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu at a gathering at Columbia University, 1958. Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accessed April 16 2025

Chien-Shiung Wu was a Chinese-American physicist who helped with the creation of the atomic bomb while facing double discrimination of race and gender in her field. Chien-Shiung Wu was born on May 31, 1912 in China. Back in her time period, many people believed that women and girls should not go to school and pursue education. Chien-Shiung Wu's father opposed this and actually believed in gender equality so he opened one of the first girl's schools in China. It was at this school that Chien-Shiung Wu developed a passion for math and science and after graduating from the National Central University in Nanjing, China in 1934, she travelled to the United States in pursuit of higher education. She studied at the University of California at Berkeley and got her Ph.D in 1940. Although she was able to pursue higher education in California, job opportunities were very limited as there was an increase in the discrimination towards Asian people at the beginning of World War II. She moved to the East Coast and went to teach at Smith's College, a women's college. Shortly after, she received an offer from Princeton University where it gave her more opportunity for her research. At this time, Princeton was still an all male's school, making her the first female instructor to be on their faculty. This was a significant accomplishment but she had to overcome many challenges as one of the only women being on the campus. After her time at Princeton, she was working at Columbia University and joined the Manhattan Project.

Her discoveries, accomplishments, and some issues:

Chien-Shiung Wu provided the first experimental proof that the principle of parity was not conserved in weak nuclear interactions. Tsung-Dao Lee from Columbia and Chen Ning Yang from Princeton proposed this idea, however they had no experiments to actually prove this. Chien-Shiung Wu proved it through her experiment with radioactive cobalt-60. Her success led to Lee and Yang being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957. Even though she was the one to carry out this experiment and provide solid scientific proof to validate Lee and Yang's theory, she did not get the recognition she deserved. She was not credited as much as Lee and Yang in part because she was a woman in this male dominated field. Though she was denied the recognition of the Nobel Prize, she received many other awards and honors throughout her career including being only the seventh woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the Comstock Prize in Physics awarded by the National Academy of Sciences, the first woman to be president of the American Physical Society, the first person to receive the Wolf Prize in Physics, and the first honorary doctorate that Princeton University awarded to a woman.

Impacts and Connection to other women in this time:

Chien-Shiung Wu broke barriers for women in the STEM field. She was the first woman to be involved in numerous areas such as being the first female president of the American Physical Society, first woman (and person) to receive the Wolf Prize in Physics, and many more. Her contributions to physics made groundbreaking and world-changing discoveries. She showcased her perseverance through continuing through and pushing through the sexism and anti-Asian discrimination and continued in the career she was passionate about even after being discredited for her work and being overlooked by the Nobel Prize Committee. She became a role model for women and Asian-Americans in later generations in science and her work is still valuable today as it laid the foundations for modern physics. She challenged the stereotypes people had for women and the Chinese community and she excelled in her work despite all of this.

Her work connects to a broader theme of female Chinese-Americans making contributions to the nation in the World War II period. This time period was a turning point for the Chinese-American community in the United States as it began the unprecedented hiring of Chinese-Americans, specifically the women, outside of Chinatown. Previously, job opportunities were very limited towards them because of racial and gender discrimination. As the nation entered and fought in the war, they needed every one who could work to fill in the unfulfilled positions men in the military left behind. There is an estimate that by 1943, about 5,000 Chinese-Americans were involved in defense-related industries in the Bay Area and between 500-600 were women (the ratio of the genders were mainly due to the Chinese Exclusion Act that was imposed earlier). Many propaganda posters and wartime advertisements show and encourage women to work, however if not all, most of them are depicting white women. This excludes those of color, in this scenario, the Chinese and Asian community for their contributions to helping the nation. This time period was revolutionary for white women but it was even more so for female Chinese-Americans as it was an opportunity for Chinese-Americans to be accepted into the society more than they have before. However, most of the illustrations and propaganda from this time only credits the white women if it even credited women for their work. There is a lot of discrediting involved when talking about the accomplishments of women, especially those facing double discrimination of their race as well, but despite these factors female Asian-Americans were still successful in making valuable contributions to society and making remarkable accomplishments just like Chien-Shiung Wu did.

Lawrence Wilbur, Get a War Job, Advertisement, 1944. Digital Maryland, Accessed April 16 2025