This article is an excerpt from the Shortform summary of "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly. Shortform has the world's best summaries of books you should be reading.
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Who were the women of Hidden Figures? Were the Hidden Figures real women?
Yes, they were real! The Hidden Figures main characters, Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine Johnson, and Mary Jackson, were all real women who contributed to both the war effort and later to NACA (NASA) in the journey to space. Read more about the women of Hidden Figures, and how they overcame obstacles to make important discoveries in science and space travel.
Opportunities at NACA (NASA) and the Women of Hidden Figures
Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race tells the story of a group of African-American women who, over a period of over 25 years, made major contributions to the US space program during its golden age. Overcoming racist and sexist discrimination, these women established themselves as brilliant mathematicians and engineers and helped lead the United States to victory in some of the pivotal moments of the Cold War-era space race—including John Glenn’s 1962 orbit of the Earth and the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing.
The women of Hidden Figures Starting in World War II, with much of the male workforce away, there were new opportunities available for women. Many of these women performed jobs that were essential to the war effort, and stayed on after the war to work in a new industry devoted to space travel. Three of these women, Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine Johnson, and Mary Jackson, are the focus of Hidden Figures. The Hidden Figures real people were scientists, activists, and pioneers of their industry and of equality.
Dorothy Vaughan
Dorothy Vaughan was one of the women of Hidden Figures who was first in the door at NACA, and later welcomes the others. One of the first to seize this new opportunity was Dorothy Vaughan. As a college graduate and high school teacher, she had reached the pinnacle of what was thought possible for black women at that time. Still, the inequality was inescapable—Virginia’s black teachers earned less than 50 percent of what their white counterparts did and worked in segregated, poorly funded, and dilapidated school buildings. But she was a passionate believer in education, believing that it was the best chance black children had to succeed in a country that forced them to work twice as hard to get half as far as white people. She poured herself into her work and was a passionate advocate for her students, even under the trying circumstances of Virginia’s segregated public schools. She even once sent a letter to a math textbook publisher when she discovered an error in one of their books, demanding that they correct it.
She had received her degree in education from Howard University, one of the nation’s premier black colleges. Because the white schools (including the Ivy League) refused to tenure black professors regardless of their brilliance, black schools like Howard had an over-abundance of extraordinary scholars. Dorothy had the opportunity to study under some of the nation’s greatest minds. Although she studied education in order to become a teacher (considered at the time to be the most stable possible career for a black woman) she had always had a passion for mathematics. Many of the Hidden Figures real people had a background in mathematics.
In 1943, Dorothy saw a job bulletin for a federal agency that was hiring women to fill mathematics-related jobs: NACA. Although the intended audience for this advertisement was likely the white students from the State Teachers College, it captivated Dorothy. This was also happening at a time when the black press was spreading the word that the federal government had cracked open the door of opportunity to African-Americans to work in the bustling war economy.
In 1943, typical black jobs might have been in domestic work (for women) or low-skill, low-wage agricultural industrial work (for men). A good black job would have been as a small business entrepreneur or as a unionized porter on a railcar. A very good black job would have been working as a teacher, minister, doctor, or lawyer. But the opportunity for a black person to work in an aeronautical laboratory (and not as a janitor or cafeteria worker) was something altogether new and extraordinary.
That spring, Dorothy filled out her application. In the fall, she received her answer: she was hired to work as a Grade P-1 Mathematician at Langley for the duration of the war. Her pay would be more than twice what she was earning as a high school teacher. Although the job would take her away from her husband, her children, and the community that she loved (they would only be able to see her during school breaks and scheduled visits), she knew she could not let this opportunity pass her by.
Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson is one of the best-known women of Hidden Figures. As chance would have it, Dorothy had had some contact with another future NACA pioneer: a black West Virginian named Katherine Coleman (she would become more famous under the name Katherine Johnson after she married her second husband). Dorothy’s husband, Howard, was a bellhop who worked seasonally at the famed Greenbrier hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. In the summer of 1942, a year before she took the NACA job, Dorothy and her family temporarily relocated to West Virginia, so Howard could be closer to his summer job. While there, the Vaughan family formed a close bond with the Coleman family, especially their brilliant 24-year-old daughter, Katherine.
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Here's what you'll find in our full Hidden Figures summary :
- How brave black women were instrumental to the American space race
- How they confronted racism and sexism to forge a better future
- Their enduring legacy in American history
