The “Other Hidden Figure”
One of the most important topics covered in my AP US History class was the Cold War. The Space Race that took place after World War II highlighted the fight for supremacy in spaceflight capabilities.
In 1951, Sputnik 1 was launched into space by the Soviet Union. Yury Gaginon became the first human to ever orbit the earth.
In response, the United States did not want to lag behind their counterparts. Aggressively, they pushed for their man in space. I learned that John Glenn was the first US astronaut to orbit the earth. By 1969, the successful Apollo 11 made the United States the first to reach the moon.
As I recall, this was the summarized lesson about the Space Race that I learned in AP US history. Yet, there is obviously 20 years of information about the Space Race.
If there is one thing I learned by studying history, it is that it only highlights the ones who achieved it. The person behind the scenes is never highlighted. It’s important to realize that the people you work with are the ones that help lift a person to greatness.
After watching the movie, Hidden Figures, I learned that one of the most pivotal moments in U.S. history was successful because a minority woman living in a segregated United States challenged the status quo.
“We needed to be assertive as women in those days — assertive and aggressive — and the degree to which we had to be that way depended on where you were. I had to be. In the early days of NASA women were not allowed to put their names on the reports — no woman in my division had had her name on a report.” — Kathrine Johnson
Kathrine Johnson calculated the correct forumlas to help John Glenn become the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the earth and safely return to earth. Her work, along with the other two highlighted NASA scientist/engineers, Dororthy Vaughn & Mary Jackson, would be key to NASA’s success in the late 1950s — 1960s.
If you haven’t watched this movie, WATCH IT! Besides the historical references and feel good story, I found out that Euler’s method was a lot more significant than I first learned in my calculus class.
Although there are many bright and talented individuals throughout history, those who broke barriers are the ones that history will remember. Unfortunately, there are some individuals that never got the recognition and acknowledgement they deserved.
There is one story that I’d like to highlight; call it the “other hidden figure.” Chien-Shiung Wu, Dr. Wu, known as the “First Lady of Physics” was a Chinese-American nuclear physicist that broke barriers in her field.
“There are those films that shine the spotlight on those whose name who are known to a few, but whose stories deserved to told. — Octavia Spencer at the Oscars 2017”
Wu grew up in a town northwest of Shanghai, Liuhe. She lived in a time where “Chinese girls were expected to bind their feet and grow up to serve their male compatriots.”
Her father was a strong supporter of women’s equal rights and in a few years, the last Chinese Dynasty was overthrown. As a result, society fought against traditional customs and practices. Her parents soon started a girls school and Chien-Shiung became one of the first girls to receive a formal education.
“Ignore the obstacles,” her father told her. “Just put your head down and keep walking forward.” — Wu’s Father
Through hard work and dedication, she had to work twice as hard as her male peers to get into National Central University in Nanjing. Her studies and dedication led to her life commitment in research at university.
By the 1930s, she pursued her PhD at University of California, Berkeley, where she was then considered an expert in nuclear physics.
At this point in history, Japan had invaded China. By 1941, the US would enter World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor. While many of her peers were recruited for war purposes, Wu never got asked. In fact, she was not asked to remain at Berkeley for a permanent position due to discrimination. A lot of the top universities during that time did not hold positions for women and on top of that, Wu often faced racisim.
With her relentless drive, she moved to the East Coast and accepted an assistant professorship at Smith College. It was in the same year, the U.S. conducted the famous Manhattan Project.
The Manhattan Project was the top secret R&D that helped create the first nuclear bomb. Historians argued that whoever developed the first nuclear weapon, would win the war.
It was here when Dr. Wu’s expertise shined. The famous scientist, Enrico Fermi, was stuck on a critical problem: developing a process to enrich uranium ore that produced large quantities of uranium as fuel for atomic bombs.
After a failed experiment, Dr. Wu helped Fermi solve this issue. This breakthrough led to the successful development of the first atomic bomb for the United States.
Dr. Wu would go on to research at Columbia University where she helped overthrow a law of symmetry in physics called the principle of conservation of parity. Despite this achievement, only her colleagues received the Nobel Prize.
Wu would go on to receive and win many other awards and continued to teach and research at Columbia University until she retired in 1981.
Dr. Wu overcame countless boundaries put up by society to hold her back and became someone who irreparably transformed science through her efforts. She crushed the walls and shattered the glass ceiling.
Women’s History Month is a celebration of more than gender, it’s a celebration of overlooked, invisible people who accomplished courageous feats in their life times.
#BreakingBarriers
Works Referenced/Cited & Some Follow Up Reading!
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