The story behind the Oscar-winning film Hidden Figures occurred at the height of tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union during the infamous Cold War. As Russians successfully sent the first artificial satellite into the earth’s orbit in the late 1950s, the United States government grew increasingly worried that the Soviets would use that satellite to gather intelligence on the American military (History.com Editors Cold War history). Therefore, then-President Kennedy issued a decree to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA for short, to catch up to the Soviets and send our very own astronauts into space. This story is about three black women that worked for NASA during that period and the success story of how NASA navigated through and eliminated racial segregation and the belittlement of women while fulfilling that decree.

It might seem like a no-brainer that all genders should be treated the same way with respect in our modern-day societies now. But gender equality wasn’t a big thing back in the 1950s and 60s, despite the ratifications of the 19^th amendment granting women the right to vote. Women still had an image and impression of being primarily unintelligent housewives and uneducated among the wider population. That gender stereotype was so heavily imprinted in people’s minds during that time that it made it hard for the male population to treat their female counterparts with dignity and respect. Remarkably, there are many scenes in this film that are worth mentioning that accurately depict just that.

The first of the many excellent examples is when the film first began, our three main female characters became stranded on the side of the road. Moments later, a state trooper pulled up behind them to question them. Unfortunately, the male officer had a few gender stereotypes and racial biases against these three women of color from his tone of voice. He asked them where they were going, and it wasn’t until one of the women spoke up and said that they work for NASA that the officer started to show some decency and respect towards them. The officer then asked them whether or not if they needed a tow for their vehicle. One of them responded no because she was handy enough to fix the simple starter problem. It is noticeably clear that this response struck a nerve of respect in the officer’s mind. Because eventually, the officer was kind enough to offer them an escort with police sirens on to help them get to the NASA complex faster.

Another great example of gender stereotypes happened later in the film when the main character called Katherine Goble, was introduced to Lieutenant Colonel Johnson at a party. They were attracted to each other, so they took a quick walk down the street. That is when Lieutenant Colonel Johnson asked her scope of work within NASA. She said that she works under the space task group in which she performs very sophisticated and complex calculations of the orbital trajectory. Out of shock, the Lieutenant Colonel responded to her and offended her by casting doubt that NASA actually allows women to be in charge of those calculations, let alone a black woman. This part of the film perfectly illustrates that gender stereotypes do not only apply to white males but also to people of color because Lieutenant Colonel Johnson is a black male.

On top of gender stereotypes, there were also many indications of racial inequality. A good example of that was a scene with another one of the main characters called Dorothy Vaughan. She approached her superior, Mrs. Mitchell, and asked for an update on her supervisor application as she was already performing supervisory tasks without the title recognition and pay scale reflection of her work. However, Mrs. Mitchell shut her down by saying that the administration is not considering assigning a supervisor for the “colored” group.

Another excellent example of that happened with our third main character called Mary Jackson. This scene was a conversation that she had with Mr. Zielinkski, the boss of the experimental prototype testing facility within NASA. After a failed experiment, Mr. Zielinkski took Mary to the foreground site to examine the prototype rocket. He was talking to himself about the damages that he observed on the prototype. Then, out of nowhere, Mary responded to him and commented on some specific changes that could be done to address the prototype’s shortfalls. Mr. Zielinkski was very impressed with Mary’s knowledge. He turned around to talk to Mary and tried to convince her to apply to become a NASA engineer because NASA desperately needs people with her technical and engineering mindsets. However, to that question, Mary responded and said that she wouldn’t dare pursue the impossible because she is a black woman.

This part of the film is compelling because the racial segregation mindset is also profoundly imprinted with the oppressed black community. They are so accustomed to this way of life that they would rather grin and bear it than try to take a shot at it. However, this is not because they are incapable of doing so, because shortly after hearing that, Mr. Zielinski confronted her once again and asked whether if she would like to become one if given a chance. To that, she responded very confidently that she’d already been one if that was the case.

Gender stereotype issues also happened to our main character Katherine. It happened at the particular scene where she was first granted access to the all-male space task group. When she first entered that room, a male colleague of hers thought she was the custodian trying to clean up the room for them. So this particular male colleague placed a waste bin full of trash on top of her suitcase. Shortly after that, Mr. Harrison, the boss of the space task group, met Katherine and asked whether she could perform complex mathematical calculations using a particular theory. She responded to him promptly with the answer and some other things that Mr. Harrison was not expecting her to know.

Noticing her value, Mr. Harrison told her that he would periodically ask her to review and double-check the mathematical calculations from the other male mathematicians in that room. Upon hearing that, one of her male colleagues was very upset and confronted Mr. Harrison and told him that his calculations were perfect and he did not need a black female colleague to review his work. This part of the film clearly shows that the white male dominant population back then truly believed that they were far more intelligent than females could ever be, let alone a black female.

Ultimately, throughout the film, this male colleague keeps on belittling her by purposely marking things off with a black marker to make Katherine’s life more miserable. And Katherine tolerated all of them until, finally, Mr. Harrison scolded her for being missing for an extended period of time from her desk one rainy day. She completely lost her temper with Mr. Harrison by saying that the reason she is always missing is that there are no colored restrooms in the building where she works. As a result, she has to travel by foot to a nearby building about 20 minutes away every single time just to relieve herself. Shortly after that confrontation, Mr. Harrison took action into his own hands by personally smashing the restroom signs in the building. That way, everyone would use the same restroom from here on and out regardless of skin color.

Now, people watching this film will likely give Mr. Harrison or NASA as a whole very high praise for being one of the more socially progressive institutions during those times. However, it is essential to understand that if it wasn’t for those black women’s intelligence and their immense value to NASA. NASA would most likely be another one of those other institutions of that time. Mr. Harrison will certainly not have personally taken this matter into his own hands. After all, the only way to gain respect is to prove them wrong or prove that you’re smarter than them.

Works Cited

History.com Editors. “Cold War History.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 27 Oct. 2009, http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history#section_3.