Katherine Johnson Hidden Figure Analysis

60 years ago, girls in high school were not told that they should aspire to become lawyers. Seldom were they pushed to attend college—secretarial trade schools were the highest education expected of them. Instead, adult figures encouraged the younger generations of girls to become wives and mothers. Women were taught how to be the perfect wife by cleaning, cooking, raising children and never over-stepping her husband.
My grandmother, who raised her children in the 70s, represented this ideal. While my grandfather worked at a Ford Plant, she stayed home to raise 4 kids. Despite her pleas to get a job, her husband prohibited her from working. Only after her youngest son reached kindergarten was she “allowed” to get a part-time job at Sears.
My grandfather dictated their marriage; he expected her to stay home and play wife. Countless other men with the same mind-set as my grandfather believed women belonged in domestic environments. Besides answering phone calls and waiting tables, women were not welcome in the workplace. In the first episode of the TV show Mad Men, businessmen goggled and scoffed at women executives and researchers. Regardless of their abilities, the men laughed at the idea of working under or listening to a woman. Females are still not accepted in all places of work, and this can reflect from unequal pay. Last year, my aunt got promoted in her office job. She was working the same title as a one of her male coworkers but their paychecks differed by over $30,000. When she gave her bosses an ultimatum, they refused to match her salary to her male counterpart. Instances like these are constantly today, and women are still fighting to earn respect from men. It is unfair to restrict the potential of women based on presumptions about their performance.
For years, men dominated all occupations; politics, research, law, medicine, and so on. Perhaps it’s hard for men to break traditions and allow women an equal opportunity in the professional world. Despite the doubts and the disrespect that women have received, they’re just as capable as men to succeed in a career.
There’s nothing wrong with a woman who wants to be a wife or a mother, but it is nobody’s place to tell a woman she isn’t allowed to live any other way.
A gender doesn’t define how intelligent, skilled, or motivated an individual can be. Based on a true story, the film Hidden Figures proved the importance of Katherine Johnson’s brilliant mind in the launching of the first man into space. Surpassing the math skills of all her male colleagues, Johnson calculated the landing coordinates of a capsule when no one else could. Without her contributions, the entire operation would have failed. Women can have certain talents men lack that are useful in the working world. Suppressing these talents is not only insulting to women, but it prevents their contributions from changing the world and would cause regression in society. Doctor Ellis Grey in ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy shook the world of medicine when she won the prestigious “Harper Avery” award. One of the only female surgeons in the early 80’s, she invented a new surgical technique that gave publicity and credibility to the hospital she worked at. Characters like Ellis Grey and real women such as Katherine Johnson have made breakthroughs in the occupational world. These leaps forward inspire other women to follow their lead and model what girls are capable of. Females have proved time and time again just how useful they are in the workplace and how they don’t need a husband to make money for
them.