Unit 4: STEM Women Rock! (2nde)

Reaching for the stars

The first document under study is a movie poster promoting the film entitled Hidden Figures, released in 2016. The characters on the poster are fictional although they are inspired by the real life of three African-American scientists: “The women you don’t know behind the mission you do” (know). They look determined, proud and sure of themselves even though they were working in a field dominated by white men.

These characters are Katherine Johnson was a human computer and she was the one who found the good calculations to send someone in space and back safely. Dorothy Vaughn became the leader for all the female human computers. Mary was the engineer.  

The second document is a picture of the cast of the film being interviewed. We can see the three actresses, the producer, Pharrel William, the movie director, Theodor Melfi and 2 NASA staff members to make the movie realistic. Behind them, we can see a poster with the pictures of the three female scientists who actually inspired the movie.

When we compare the two documents, we can see the NASA logo and the main actresses in both of the documents.

The main issue at stake is that the place of black women in the 1950s and 1960s in the USA was very complicated, they suffered from a double burden: racism and sexism.

As a matter of fact, without the movie, their stories would have never been told. They are the real hidden figures.

Homework: Learn the lesson