The Winter Plum: How Wu Yifang Became the First Woman to Sign the UN Charter

From Bound Feet to the United Nations

FIRST ENGLISH BIOGRAPHY of Wu Yifang, who rose from bound feet in 1893 China to become the first woman to sign the United Nations Charter in 1945. When Wu Yifang was born in 1893, her feet were bound tight, and her future seemed small. But like the Winter Plum that blooms fearlessly in frost, Yifang refused to stay caged. She became China’ s first female PhD in Biology, graduating from the University of Michigan in 1928. As President of Ginling College, ...