Women In Margot Lee Shetterly's Hidden Figures

In the book Hidden Figures written by Margot Lee Shetterly, Katherine Johnson is one of the main characters. Known as a human computer working for NASA. Katherine is a very smart woman who graduated from college when she was 18 years old and when she was 10 years old she attended high school. She is one of the first African Americans to work for NASA. She would work on some of the hardest calculations and would still find ways to solve them. She was a very hard worker but did not get credit for what she did because she is African American, she made history.

Mary settled working in NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) in 1951. She worked and was the member of the west area computing unit, were at the time was called the “human computer”. She was supervised by Dorothy Vaughan who was also a comprising African American female mathematician. Both women provided data that was important for the early success of the space

An example of that would be during a laboratory open house, where a photo of her and the rest of her co-workers was blown up and put on display, with the exception of her face which was purposely cut out of the picture. She was very embarrassed about it but she didn't let it affect her. In an interview with NASA she said “When people have their biases and prejudices, yes, I am aware. My head is not in the sand. But my thing is, if I can't work with you, I will work around you. I was not about to be discouraged that I'd walk away. That may be a solution for some people, but it's not mine”. Another obstacle she faced was her inability to get a good education as others because of her skin colour. Back at her time, there was a lot of discrimination.which resulted in a separation of schools for black and white people. The schools with black kids typically had a worse education. She was also unable to continue her study as a pharmacist because she got married and had to move. Though all of that happened to her It didn't stop her from becoming a great computer programmer, mathematician, and a rocket scientist for NASA who helped make modern spaceflight possible with her calculations. Everything she has done and all the obstacles she has faced are reasons that make her a very notable

Amelia Earhart was an icon. She was a feminist. Not only a pioneer but also brave. During Amelia’s life, all the goals she had achieved were attained through pure perseverance and resilience. While Earhart had become well-known for being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, she was likewise known throughout the world for her individual developments and aid in the feminist movement. She acknowledged a grander purpose in life which was the desire to live a life that surpassed beyond home and being confined in society. Her achievements in becoming an active feminist and succeeding in her dreams and goals prove her resilient courageous nature of being a woman during the 20th century despite being in a male dominant society.

In 1983 Sally Ride was the first female astronaut in American history, Sally Ride in space. Setting the base for all young girls and woman to have confidence in believing they could do anything men could even though labeled as “just girls”. Ride was one of the primary sources of woman empowerment in that time period. Sally ride was a extremely important woman in the 1980’s to the U.S, her becoming an astronaut has lead to gobs of realizations of what women can do now. Ride was the first woman to join NASA in the United States.

The footprints on the lunar surface, left there by Neil Armstrong were both historic and monumental, but his boot would have never touched the ground, if it had not been for Margaret Hamilton. Margaret Hamilton is one of the few brilliant scientists who were also feminist leaders in the 1960s. Despite her achievements, Hamilton still remains neglected in American and scientific history .Though Hamilton, had a substantial role in NASA, had world changing accomplishments, and faced difficult challenges in society, Margaret Hamilton still does not receive the recognition that is granted to men of similar or lesser achievements. If it had not been for Margaret Hamilton NASA would not have been what it is today.

After being chosen to work on such an important matter., Katherine was not truly accepted as a co-worker. She couldn’t use the bathroom in the building that she worked in because there wasn’t any bathrooms for colored people. Even down to the coffee pot her’s had to be labeled colored. Katherine seemed to be overwhelmed in the way she had been treated all she wanted to do was be of help. Katherine couldn't be denied her skill, witch paved the way into the NASA meanings. There she was to be able to show her talent behind the

When first introduced to this year’s National History Day theme of “Exploration, Encounter & Exchange”, we immediately knew that we wanted to focus on space travel. Our primary interest in space, along with the hopes to find a topic that exceeded the limits society placed upon them due to their gender, race, or sexuality, contributed to our choosing Sally Ride. Here was an individual, who changed the course of women’s history by becoming America’s first woman in space. Sally Ride’s biggest accomplishment was serving as an inspiration for the youth, especially for young girls, to pursue their dreams.

Johnson began working at NASA’s Langley laboratory in 1953 (Loff). Langley was an all-black West Area computing section at NASA (Loff). It consisted of female mathematicians that were called “computers”, who did tasks like analyzing data from flight tests (Shetterly 13-15). Two weeks into the job Johnson was assigned a project in the Maneuver Loads Branch of the Flight Research Division (Loff). The Flight Research Division was known for being a high-energy environment filled with freethinking and aggressive engineers who specialized in testing real planes instead of wind tunnels (Shetterly 98-99). The division needed two “computers,” Dorothy Vaugh, who was Johnson’s supervisor at Langley, assigned Katherine Johnson along with one of her close friends (98-99). Being assigned this job excited Johnson, she once said, “Everything was so new, the whole idea of going into space was new and daring” (Bolden 103-106). This position in the division was temporary, but soon became permanent. She became a vital member of the division because of her experience and knowledge with high level math (103).

The movie Hidden Figures is about 3 exceptional women and the role they played at NASA. The main character, is katherine Johnson a math genius. The movie also includes her friends Mary Jackson who is an engineer, and Dorothy Vaugh who is acting as a supervisor for all the computers. The movie takes place in virginia in 1961, during the cold war; but also during the race for space. The goal in this film is to put an american in space, they have a lot of racism and sexism in this film.

This idea assisted Katherine Johnson to be able to do and assist with the space race as much as she did because previous to this and still around the time period, women were not seen as people who were able to do this sort of

“Hidden Figures” is a movie based on African-American women, and the impact they had on the United States’ race to space in the early 1960s. Based on true events, “Hidden Figures” follows the daily lives of African-American NASA workers Katherine Goble, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan, during a time where African-Americans and women were not treated equally. The computers were the workers at NASA who had to analyze data using mathematics to help study the universe. Many mathematicians were women such as Goble, Jackson, and Vaughan, and the African-American computers were packed into the West Computing Wing and paid very little. They were forced to use low quality equipment, and their jobs became threatened as NASA began working on the

Progression in technology comes with progression of education. The movie “Hidden Figures” highlights the opportunities involved when intelligent, courageous women take strides to create the math to send astronauts to the moon. This movie is about three historical African American women who worked as “human computers” at the NASA Research Center in Langley, VA in the early 1960’s. Katherine Johnson (fellow mathematician), Dorothy Vaughn (programmer) and Mary Jackson (engineer), contributed to NASA space program to successfully send John Glenn, the first man to orbit around the earth, Project Mercury and later Apollo II mission. The film is a powerful reminder of the destructive consequences of discrimination. It holds important career lessons about how to manage and excel at work even under challenging circumstances.

The movie Hidden Figures is about 3 African American women who work for NASA during the 1950’s.The three women are Katherine Johnson,Dorothy Vaughn,and Mary Jackson.Katherine Johnson had a hidden talent that most of the people that worked at NASA didn't know she had , she was a master with the numbers.Dorothy was the manager of NASA's segregated West Area Computing Unit and she was also good with the numbers,just not as good as Katherine.Mary Jackson was an American mathematician and aerospace engineer that worked at NASA,along with the other three girls.Many African American women worked for NASA they just don't receive much recognition but these three women seem to have changed the game for everyone.

The men and women in Hidden Figures led very differently. They did not lead differently due to their gender alone; they lead differently based on their positions of power and socializations. According to Wren, “the focus on masculinity and femininity suggests significant innate or ingrained socialized differences between the sexes. Research does show some differences between males and females; however, there are far fewer differences than is commonly believed.” This movie takes place in a time when there was an even greater disparity between men and women and between white people and black people. Just because someone is not in power does not mean they cannot be a leader. That is what the women in Hidden Figures displayed. They lead through action and inspiration rather than power. Some of the white men that are in power in Hidden Figures are not great leaders despite the fact that they are in power. Gender definitely effected power in our society in the 60’s and still does today. It is important and necessary to examine how this gendered power effects leadership so we can learn to be better leaders no matter how much power we are in.