Hidden Figures

 

In Hollywood, women are 9 times out of 10 designed to play housewives, maids, mistresses, party girls, waitresses, and all other kinds of side characters. One of my favorite movies that breaks gender stereotypes is Hidden Figures. It is an inspiring story of three, brave, African-American women working at NASA. Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughn worked as “human computers” for NASA, which was at the time not only male dominated, but also very segregated. Ever since she was a little girl, Katherine was out-smarting all the older boys and girls in her class, even after skipping grades. This alone breaks gender stereotypes, since in most movies, and in real life, boys are seen as smarter than girls. Also, Katherine’s favorite subject to excel at was math, when girls in STEM were almost unheard of.  The three women continue to break gender barriers as they enter their careers at NASA. Katherine is robbed of all her hard work when lead engineer Paul Stafford takes credit for everything she accomplishes, while also trying to make her job as hard as possible. One of my favorite parts of the movies is the powerful, jaw-dropping scene when Katherine confronts her boss and all her white, male co-workers about what she really does during her “breaks”. She announces something they all probably didn’t know: that she has to walk half a mile every time she merely needs to use the restroom. This results in change as Harrison, her boss, knocks down the colored sign above the bathroom and desegregates them. Mary applies for a NASA engineer position, but is shut down because she is told she does not have the qualifications for the position. To overcome this, she works tirelessly at an all-white night class she had to fight to attend in court. And Dorothy has been doing back-breaking work, acting as supervisor of her section, just without the pay or title. She learns as much as possible about new technology and teaches the entire female African-American computing section, and eventually gets that promotion. All three amazing women break gender and race barriers with their hard work and brilliant brains. The best part of this movie is that it is based on a true story. Hidden Figures truly inspired me, and millions of others around the world, that anything is possible, when we believe in ourselves and fight for what’s right.