
It means proving herself every single step along the way.Įven so, Mary shows us that there is something rewarding about winning an honorable and hard-fought battle. Even when Mary is victorious and is granted permission to attend, being first means being unwelcome. It means researching and pleading her case. In Mary’s case, being first means going to court.
KATHERINE JOHNSON NASA CHALLENGER MOVIE
She asks him, “Out of all the cases you gonna hear today, which one is gonna matter a hundred years from now? Which one is gonna make you the first?”īut the movie also reveals that being first isn’t easy. In her plea, Mary reminds the judge of the “importance of being first,” in this case being the first to challenge social norms. This is her only option if she wants to become a NASA engineer. In one of the most compelling scenes in the movie, Mary Jackson petitions the court to allow her to attend graduate classes at night at a segregated high school. They do not allow anyone to dim their light, and neither should you. Katherine, Mary, and Dorothy know their value. This is what gives Katherine the spunk to challenge the sexist attitude of the man she eventually marries and the courage to invite herself into highly classified meetings at NASA without proper clearance. Likewise, Dorothy is not appreciated for her leadership, and Mary is discouraged from pursuing graduate classes in engineering despite both women being highly qualified.īut these ladies know that their value is not determined by what other people say or do or think. Even though Katherine’s ability to calculate complex mathematical equations is exceptional, she is repeatedly underestimated, and when her colleagues begin to recognize her extraordinary talent, she is still resented by men and women alike. Over and over and over again, the main characters in the movie are treated as second-class citizens because they are female and black at a time when both are considered inferior. Do not allow ANYONE to diminish your value.Here are a few of my favorite takeaways from this movie, but PLEASE go and see it for yourself! You can thank me for the recommendation later! I did not expect this, but I don’t mind that they did. I didn’t expect that their voices would continue speaking to me long after the movie had ended, that they would unpack their suitcases and stay. What I did not expect was that Katherine, Mary, and Dorothy would become my friends, that they would kick up their feet and make themselves at home in my head. I believe that every person has a valuable story, a unique life experience that unlocks the door to lessons that we may not have learned on our own, so I expected to appreciate this movie. Given the time period, they are considered “lucky” to work as computers (mathematicians) at such a respected government agency, but their experiences at NASA reveal that while technology is advancing at lightning speed in 1961, social progress is often excruciatingly slow. The three women who propel the movie, Katherine Goble Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan, have both brilliant minds and firecracker spirits. The year is 1961, and while the country is united in a common goal to send a man to the moon, there is racial tension within NASA’s gates and civil unrest outside them. Here are our favourite inspiring quotes from the women who made history in space travel – the women who we can thank when our daughters become physicists, engineers, pilots and astronauts.Hidden Figures tells the true story of three African American women working at NASA during the height of the space race between the United States and Russia. It’s also that they threw themselves into their studies with fervour, working hard to become astronauts: they were physicists and engineers and pilots and doctors – and that was before they even got into orbit. However, if there’s one thing women who work in space, have flown to space and who inspire the rest of us to reach beyond the stars have shown us, it’s that they persisted, breaking barriers and proving nay-sayers wrong, time and time again.

READ MORE: Only 5% of the UK’s pilots are female, but why? However, we know the path still isn’t straightforward for females wanting to go into space: NASA revealed as much earlier in 2019, when the first all-female spacewalk with Christina Koch and Anne McClain was cancelled – embarrassingly, it was due to a lack of proper-fitting female astronaut attire.
