Will Hollywood Learn From Hidden Figures

When people think about mathematicians, they typically refer to white, doctorate-educated male. However, there are more women budding into the field of mathematics. This paper will focus on one special woman, an African-American woman by the name of Evelyn Boyd Granville. She is not the first African-American woman to receive a doctorate in mathematics, but she, unlike Euphemia Lofton Haynes, stayed more out of the education field and primarily worked for NASA, contributing to many expeditions in space. Her contributions have inspired many young girls to look into and pursue a career in the field of mathematics.

Hidden Figures is a 2016 film that recounts the story of three incredible black women in NASA history: Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. The film largely sheds light on the experiences of these three women working as computers for NASA during 1960s segregated America. Public restrooms are separated between the whites and coloreds, the white male patriarchy dominates the field, and as always, racism is alive and well. During the film, the political unrest of the country is present and very much of conversation, and as these three women navigate their way throughout society with positions no one expects them to hold, they quite literally make history through their groundbreaking work, history

The film Hidden Figures is based on a true story and adapted from the book ‘Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race’ by Margot Lee Shetterly. The movie is centered around a trio of African-American women who worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and played an essential role in sending John Glenn to space amidst a burgeoning Space Race between the United States of America and Russia. Based in Hampton, Virginia in the 1960’s, film depicts the deep racism and sexism prevalent in the United States at that time. The film provides a glimpse of the stark realities that black women faced at the time. From the segregated bathrooms and

The protagonist, Katherine, is first introduced to us as a child who is exceedingly smart for her age and is solving problems that even adults would never dream of attempting. Much to her teachers delightment, the screens show Katharine hard at work, chalk in hand, scribbling away on the blackboard. It is mentioned early on in the movie that Katherine can calculate any numbers you put in front of her; there isn't a problem out there she is incapable of solving. She takes pride in informing people, when they underestimate her, that she was the first Negro female student at West Virginia university graduate school. Katherine constantly displays diligence with everything she does and dedicates all her efforts and most of her time towards her job. To me, It is not at all surprising that her outstanding talent for calculating complex math problems and her perspicacious mind landed her a high ranked job at NASA and led to her making history.

The successful Russian satellite launch there was pressure on America to send one of their own in space. Katherine's supervisor Vivian Mitchell assigns her to assist At Harrison Kevin Costner to the space task group, Katherine becomes the first African American team member to assist in a key group and even work in the building that doesn’t even have a bathroom for coloured people. Dorothy's request to be officially promoted to supervisor is rejected by Vivian. Mary identifies a flaw in the experimental space capsule's that heat shields, encouraging her to more pursue an engineering

Margot Lee Shetterly’s Hidden Figures is the story and celebration of three black women such as (Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine Johnson, and Mary Jackson) who worked as computers, mathematicians, scientists, and engineers from 1943 to 1980 for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and its successor, the (NASA). More precisely, it is a historical homage to the fearlessness of mathematical minds too brilliant to be hindered by racism and sexism to women who walked away from traditional, low-paying teaching jobs and marched into a predominantly white, segregated work force that considered them, in Shetterly’s words, “invisible and invaluable at the same time. These women served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history,

As depicted in the film, the head engineer in the space task group did not fancy the idea of Katherine checking his mathematical calculations. He perceived it as an insult to his intelligence to have an African American woman be assigned specifically to correct his unknown errors. He wanted the boss to value his calculations instead of Katherine’s. He also was not too thrilled about Katherine attending the meetings regarding the space launch as he stated, “women are not allowed in meetings.” Moreover, if Katherine was not a part of the space task group, the launch of John Glenn into orbit would have been unsuccessful since she was the brain behind the

The movie Hidden Figures did not have anything incorrect in the movie and will say that the movie was a plain understanding and clear narrative of the common stereotypes and racial bias that these three women faced during that time from the way they dressed, the gender differences and the dialogue . It clearly shows that Katherine G. Johnson was the major breakthrough for computing the coordinates that enabled the Space crew launch the space shuttle into space. Although, she faced so much unfair treatment she was determined in making sure that the United States wins

Hidden figures is a 2016 American historical drama film directed by Theodore Melfi and written by Melfi and Allison Schroeder, based on true story of contributions made to space flight by the black women who operated at the Langley Research Centers in the early times of aeronautical research. It tells slight known history about the important work performed by black women amongst segregation and discrimination that led to America putting a man to a space. The movie Hidden Figures is a good source of studying history and can provide about a historical knowledge about the discrimination, segregation, as well as technologies at middle 19th centuries.

As a young woman of color the main focus of the newly elect president is that women of color continue to be underrepresented in the most areas of science, technology engineering and mathematics (STEM), and research is needed to understand the experiences of women of color in those areas( Ong, Wright, Espinosa, and Orefield, 2011). Study shows, we centralize the mathematical sense making of these students to counter the common colorblind approach to studying cognition.

In contrast, a resemblance for the modern discrimination to the black community is the 2016 film, “Hidden figures” a film that reflects the true story of three powerful African American women who are mathematicians at NASA but are discriminated by the colour of their skin. Placing them in “coloured women’s toilets” and not only discriminating them because of their coloured skin but also their gender. The film perfectly depicts the change of discrimination to black people by showing men smashing “coloured toilet” signs and letting genus Katherine Johnson show her fullest potential. “Genius has no race. Strength has no gender. Courage has no limit.”

Katherine a determined woman she began college at the age of 15 taking every math course the college could offer and graduated in 1937 with degrees of math and french at age 18, she was a great mathematician she soon heard that NASA was looking for new people and were open to hiring african american women. In addition, 8n 1958 Goble worked as an aerospace technologist, but by the time electronic computers came began to come out many of the women human computers that nasa had used to help figure out mathematical problems, but not katherine she was trusted more than an actual computer itself they believed she could do a more accurate job than the computers themselves.

The movie “Hidden Figures” directed by Theodore Melfi debuted January 6, 2017 is said to be not a movie of ego but instead a story of brilliance, struggle, and willpower. The movie Hidden Figures is based on the true story of three African American women in the 1960’s who were employed by Virginia based NASA in the West Area Computing Division as “human computers” doing math on paper by hand as opposed to a calculator. The three women were, Kathryn Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn and Mary. The movie takes place in American during a time that Jim Crow was the law and African American people were treated sub-human and were kept at the bottom of the racial hierarchy (http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm). Each of these women played a key role in assisting the launching of space shuttle, Friendship 7 with John Glenn into space. The film is fundamentally centered on the extreme lead-up the seven missions, which enabled the space traveler Johnson Glenn to become the first American to travel around the earth in a spaceship, a mission that was made conceivable by the work of the West Area mathematicians and specialists, especially Johnson.

The movie Hidden Figures is said to be not a movie of ego but instead a story of brilliance, struggle, and willpower. (Cruz, L. 2017, January 9). The movie Hidden Figures is based on the true story of three African American women in the 1960’s who were employed by Virginia based NASA in the West Area Computing Division as “human computers” doing math on paper by hand as opposed to a calculator. The three women were, Kathryn Johnson, a brilliant mathematician was used to compute that coordinates needs for the launching of the space shuttle into space but was not allowed to take credit or be treated equal as her co-workers because she was both black and a woman. Dorothy Vaughn worked in the capacity of the department supervisor but was refused the actually title and pay, and Mary Jackson had the knowledge, drive and desire to be an engineer but due to segregation laws was not allowed to attend the classes needed to obtain her engineer license. The movie takes place in American during a time that Jim Crow was the law and African American people were treated sub-human and were kept at the bottom of the racial hierarchy. (http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm). Each of these women played a key role in assisting the launching of space shuttle, Friendship 7 with John Glenn into space.

When I examine my life, I like to reflect on two facets of religion and mathematics. In the book “Hugs for Grads”, Jeff Walling advised the graduates, “The simple basics of life – love, faith, and hope – are all we really need. We can’t undo all the world’s wrongs, but we can affect the corner of the world we live in if we’ll just stick to the basics – the basics of life.” This means that religion is one of the basics of life. In addition, math is essential in everything. Mathematical applications in the study of science are essential. If I want to invest in a business, I must know how to deal with the numbers. In addition, tracking the orbits of planets in the galaxy cannot be done without numerical comparisons. When I examine my life, I discover that the Catholic school and mathematics helped me to support myself and live peacefully in three chapters of my life: my childhood, my adolescence and my maturity.