Wu Yi-fang

Wu Yi-fang (also Wu I-fang ; * 1893 in Wuchang , † 1985 in Nanjing ) was a Chinese scientist, politician and diplomat.

Youth and education

Wu Yi-fang was born in Wuchang in the central Chinese province of Hubei in 1893 as the daughter of an intellectual family. She attended modern schools in Hangzhou , Shanghai and Suzhou , including the well-known Laura Heygood School for Girls in Suzhou, which was founded by missionaries. Within a few months in 1909 she lost her father, an older brother and an older sister by suicide, and her mother died of despair. With the financial support of an uncle, she was able to attend the Ginling College of the Nanjing Pedagogical University from the spring of 1916 . She became the first chairman of the student parliament and converted to Christianity in 1916. Wu Yi-fang was a first-time graduate of Ginling College, Nanjing Pedagogical University in 1919, graduating with a degree in biology .

Professional and political activity

From 1919 Wu taught English at the Beijing Women's Normal High School , later the Beijing Women's Normal University . In 1923 she received a Barbour - grant to support Asian scientists for the University of Michigan . From 1923 to 1926 she was first deputy, then first chairman of the Chinese Student Union in the USA. In 1928 she completed her studies as a PhD in entomology . After completing her doctorate, she returned to China as President of Jinling Women's University (later Jingling Women's College for Art and Science ), becoming the first female director of a university in the history of China.

In 1928 she was also elected director of Ginling and held this position for 23 years. From 1938 to 1940, 1941 to 1942 and from 1942 to 1948 she was a member of the People's Assembly.

In 1945 Wu Yi-fang was a member of the Chinese delegation to the establishment of the United Nations . She was one of only four women among the 160 signatories to the UN Charter of Human Rights .

After 1949, she was the head of the Jiangsu Provincial Education Bureau , Deputy Governor of Jiangsu, and a member of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China .

Honors

She has received numerous honorary doctorates in various fields, such as Doctor of Science (ScD) from St. John's University (New York) , Doctor of Law (LLD) from Smith College and Mills College, and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Southern California . In 1979 she received the Alumnae Athena Award from the University of Michigan .

further reading

• Rebecca Adami: Women and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Routledge , 2018, ISBN 978-0-429-79552-7
• Devaki Jain: Women, Development, and the UN . Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-253-21819-3

Web links

• Julie Franz: Wu Yi-fang, Smith College, and Early Women's Education in China , Smith College, accessed November 21, 2011
• Short History of the Commission on the Status of Women This background information is based on The United Nations and the Advancement of Women, 1945–1996 from the United Nations Blue Book Series and the United Nations CD-Rom Women Go Global , 2000.
• UN website on the historical role of women on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 吳 貽 芳 . Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica .: "Miss Wu Yi-fang [=] Wu I-fang"
2. ^ Letter from Dr. Wu Yi-fang to Florence Tyler . Barnard College .: "Letter from Dr. Wu Yi-fang (吳 貽 芳) to Margaret Hodge [...] Cordially yours, / Yi-fang Wu, / President. "
3. ↑ Eleanor Roosevelt: Individuals Identified in the My Day Columns , The White House Historical Association, accessed on November 21, 2011 ( Memento of the original from May 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Wu Yi-fang: The making of a Family Saga - Ginling College . State University of New York Press, Albany 2009, ISBN 978-1-4384-2913-7 , pp. 256 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
5. ↑ Minnie Vautrin, Hualing Hu, Shui-fang Tsen, Lian-hong Zhang: The undaunted women of Nanking: the wartime diaries of Minnie Vautrin and Tsen Shui-fang . SIU Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8093-2963-2 , pp. 203 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).