Why you need to know about the the women in ‘Hidden Figures’

“Every time we move forward, they keep moving the finish line.” Mary Jackson, Hidden Figures.

Hidden Figures is a 2017 film based on the nonfiction novel of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly. The story chronicles the contributions of three women who were vital in the American bid to put a man in space: Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. These women combatted racism, segregation and sexism every day in their work in a male-dominated field, rising above the challenges to help the USA gain one of its biggest achievements of the 20th century.

If you haven’t heard of them, you aren’t alone: very few have, especially given the fact that they were conveniently left out of such films as Apollo 11 and Apollo 13. Despite their lack of notoriety until now, these women were paramount in shaping the 20th century of the United States and it’s time the world knew their incredible stories.

Katherine Johnson

Katherine Johnson calculated the trajectory of Alan Shephard’s space flight (the first American man in space) in 1959 by hand. She also verified the electronically calculated orbit of John Glenn’s trip around the earth in 1962 by hand, and Glenn is famously quoted as requesting her verification, saying “Call [Katherine] and if she says the computer’s right I’ll take it.”

Margot Lee Shetterly writes that Katherine graduated high school at the age of 14, graduated West Virginia State College summa cum laude with degrees in French and Mathematics at 18, and was offered a job at NASA (then called NACA) in 1953. There, her breadth of knowledge impressed her bosses and colleagues and helped her get transferred from West Area Computers to the Guidance and Control Division of Langley’s Flight Research Division.

According to a 2011 interview with WHROTV, Katherine was extremely assertive. When she was told that women didn’t typically attend meetings in which she wanted to participate she responded with “Well, is there a law [against it]?” and was awarded permission to begin attending them. This assertiveness is unsurprising, seeing as she was one of the first three African Americans (the only woman of the three) to desegregate West Virginia University’s graduate school in 1938. Katherine continued working at NASA until her retirement in 1986, contributing to such projects as the Space Shuttle and the Earth Resources Satellite. Of the space station today and its current activities, she says that she is “very proud of what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and why.”

On Nov. 24, 2015, Katherine was awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work as a Pioneering Example of African American Women in STEM. When asked her opinion on the film, NPR reports Katherine as being “bemused” about the excitement surrounding it, and stating “It was just an assignment. I’m accustomed to being asked something and I, of course, answered to the best of my ability and hoped [that was] the answer they were looking for.”

The role of Katherine in the film is played by Golden Globe winner Taraji P. Henson. When asked about the importance of the film to her personally, Henson stated in an interview with W Magazine that “The world needs to know that women were instrumental in getting our men to space, and particularly Katherine [Johnson], because when you talk about orbiting the earth, the math didn’t exist… And the fact that no one knows this story just totally blew my mind.”

Dorothy Vaughan

Dorothy Vaughan was the first black supervisor at NACA, promoted to acting head of West Area Computers (a segregated group of all African American women who did mathematical calculations by hand to improve accuracy in space flight) in 1949. According to Shetterly, Dorothy was born in 1910, completed high school at 15, graduated from Wilberforce University with a BA in mathematics at 19, and was offered a job at NACA in 1943.

Initially assigned to work as a “human computer,” when electronic computers were introduced she transitioned to the world of computer programming, gaining proficiency in several coding languages including FORTRAN. She also contributed to the space program through her work with the Scout Launch Vehicle Program which, according to NASA, is a satellite system which launched 118 satellites with a 96 percent success rate. Vaughan led her department for almost a decade, moving to the newly created Analysis and Computer Division in 1959 following the desegregation of NASA and retiring in 1971.

Dorothy is played by Academy Award-winner Octavia Spencer in the film. In an interview with Variety magazine Octavia discussed the ways her character in Hidden Figures fills the profile for a ‘strong woman,’ saying “A strong female character is a person who, no matter what her situation is, has a voice. [She] is vulnerable in a lot of ways, and it’s through that vulnerability that we see that she’s strong… [she] is not one that has to act like a man… [she] shows her femininity in spite of the situation she’s in. She establishes her own identity and retains her identify in spite of the men in her life.”

Mary Jackson

Mary Jackson was NASA’s first black female aerospace engineer, according to Margot Lee Shetterly. Born in 1921, she graduated in 1942 with a degree in Mathematics and physical science from Hampton Institute in Virginia. She joined NACA in 1951 as a research mathematician in Dorothy Vaughan’s division, moved to the Compressibility Research Division in 1953 and, five years later, combatted racism by taking graduate-level classes in math and physics at a then-segregated high school (which meant she had to get special permission from the City of Hampton just to take the classes), a challenge she completed to get her engineering degree.

Mary was passionate about advancing woman and African Americans in the scientific field, stating that “we have to do something… to get [children] interested in science… sometimes they are not aware of the number of black scientists, and don’t even know of the career opportunities until it is too late.” So impassioned was she that in 1979 she accepted a demotion to become Langley’s Federal Women’s Program Manager and “worked hard to impact the hiring and promotion of the next generation of all of NASA’s female mathematicians, engineers and scientists,” retiring for good in 1989.

Mary is played by Billboard Music Award winner Janelle Monáe. In an interview with Collider, when asked to comment on the emotions she feels about being a part of sharing the story of these women with the world, Janelle is quoted as saying, “I think that no other young girl now… will go through life and not know about Mary, Katherine, Dorothy, and the colored computers, the true American heroes.”

The film opened Dec. 25, 2016 and has so far received stellar reviews and boasts a 92 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Though Katherine is the only one of the three alive today to see their story told they will be remembered long into the future, and their legacy is hopefully one step forward that helps us reach the finish line.