Introduction
Hidden Figures tells the story of three African-American women mathematicians who played a crucial role in NASA’s operations during the inception of the United States space program. It illustrates the perseverance of the protagonists throughout their professional lives, having to endure the social limitations of segregation. The movie’s three main characters are Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson.
Katherine Johnson (formerly Goble) is a bright young Virginia mathematician. From a very young age, she showed a propensity toward math and was given a scholarship in sixth grade to go to a Black children’s school that went beyond the eighth grade. Throughout the story, Katherine is presented as an intelligent, humble, and hardworking woman who has always behaved modestly despite her immeasurable talent.
Mary Jackson aspired to become a NASA engineer, a position no Black woman had ever held. With a Bachelor’s degree in physical science and mathematics, Mary learned that she needed formal certification, but could not attend school because it was only for White students. Dorothy Vaughn was the informal leader of twenty Black women in the West Computing Group who made manual calculations for launching and landing rockets. Dorothy is highly family-oriented and wants her sons to have a good life.
Development Theories
Regarding the application of Erikson’s theory of development, all three characters are considered to be at the sixth stage, which is characterized by the dichotomy of intimacy and isolation. People will recognize themselves as individuals between eighteen and forty years old and start developing a commitment to others. The main challenge at this stage concerns building loving relationships that feel safe and can be maintained over a long period (Kuther, 2017). Dorothy, for example, is in a loving relationship with two sons, and Mary is married to a civil rights activist with whom she has a son and a daughter. Katherine is a widow and recounts her late husband with loving words.
Levinson’s seasons of life theory argues that development occurs due to qualitative changes in challenges that arise from social and intrapersonal forces. The life structure plays a crucial role in the theory as it encompasses such areas as life organization, relationships with significant others, and the characteristics of the vocational setting (Kuther, 2017). For example, being the youngest of the mathematicians, Mary constructs an image of herself as a potentially successful NASA engineer and desires to do all the work she must to reach this goal. While she juggles her work with family life, which aligns with Levinson’s distinction between seasons, it is evident that the young woman is highly driven by her occupational goals and is willing to disrupt her life to meet them. Mary is the most innovative and enthusiastic among the three characters because she feels she must get noticed to get the job she wants.
Even though Katherine and Dorothy are also bright and talented, they are less individualistic and more compliant in the workplace. For example, Dorothy tried to stand her ground when asking Mrs. Mitchell whether she was approved for the supervisor’s position. She argued that she was already doing the job and it should be officially recognized.
However, when met with a “no,” she takes a step back because she feels she is not in a place to assert herself. Similarly, when given the computer’s position in the space test group, Katherine assumes a non-confrontational position and tolerates the biases and inconveniences for a long time. Both women have experience living in a racially biased society; they are settled down and thus are less disruptive in their life organization.
Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory is highly relevant to the analysis of three characters as it views human development as a complicated system of relationships influenced by the external environment, ranging from family to broader cultural values. It is crucial to the story’s context that the three women, considered “computers” who would perform math calculations, worked at NASA during segregation. Even though Hampton Roads may seem progressive at first, it was still a segregated city in the South of the US at the peak of the Jim Crow laws (Cabral, 2020).
Therefore, NASA’s workplace and facilities, including restrooms, were segregated, aligning with the laws of the entire country. During their work and work commutes, Katherine, Dorothy, and Mary would have to enter separate bus entries, give up their seating spots to Whites, run across the campus to get to the nearest restroom, or drink coffee from a designated coffee pot. Therefore, in the work microsystem, which has an immediate effect on the characters’ lives, the three women had to endure all of the inconveniences in addition to racial bias.
For example, when Mr. Zielinski tells Mary she cannot be a computer her entire life because of her “engineer’s mind,” she replies that she is “a Negro woman, and I am not going to entertain the impossible.” By saying this, the young woman recognizes that social barriers prevent her from pursuing her career. She and her colleagues have been raised in a racist American society and thus have lower self-esteem because they are forced within a specific barrier of behavior.
Another example is Dorothy teaching her sons how to handle the ongoing discrimination they are subjected to. While the film does not show how the main characters were growing up and what challenges occurred in their childhood, it is implied that being Black was a defining factor in the opportunities they could access. Throughout a large part of the movie, the impact of racism and segregation is evident in the lives of the three women until the breakthrough moment with Katherine.
Call to Action
As suggested in the analysis above, the lives of the characters and their position in NASA were significantly limited by the sociopolitical and socioeconomic climate in the United States. In Katherine’s case, her upbringing occurred in the post-World War I period, followed by the Great Depression and World War II. Right after WWII and with the onset of the Cold War, both racial inequality and segregation ran rampant, and it was the time when Katherine would get a job at NASA. Throughout her entire life, while being incredibly talented and gifted in mathematics, she could only access educational facilities that catered to Black students, and the quality of preparation was lower compared to the colleges for White students. Therefore, Katherine became successful not due to the education available to her but despite the lack of opportunities.
At the family level, Katherine used to feel supported by her late husband. However, after she became widowed, the woman had nobody apart from co-workers to confide in. Therefore, the best practical recommendation is for her to seek support from her close circle of friends who share similar experiences. The closeness to others will be instrumental in her feeling accepted and understood, giving her the strength to persevere and continue her life’s mission.
At the school level, she should have had services to aid many gifted African American students to succeed. As a young person, she had the potential to benefit her country and facilitate scientific breakthroughs, but had to overcome continuous barriers to education access because of her race.
At the community level associated with social support, had the Civil Rights Act been signed earlier, Katherine would have become successful and been given opportunities to mentor younger generations. However, because she was Black and a woman, her talents were diminished and not taken as seriously. Katherine’s frustration with the system is illustrated in her “no bathrooms for me here” monologue, which was caused by her supervisor reprimanding her for taking extended breaks.
The boss had no consideration for her basic human needs, and the fact that segregation rules limited them. The character responded, “There are no colored bathrooms in this building, or any building outside the West Campus, which is half a mile away. Did you know that? I have to walk to Timbuktu just to relieve myself” (Melfi, 2016). In addition to criticizing the biased regulations on segregation, Katherine makes a point to comment that Black people are undervalued for the job they do: “My uniform. Skirt below my knees, my heels, and a simple string of pearls. Well, I don’t own pearls. Lord knows you don’t pay coloreds enough to afford pearls!” (Melfi, 2016).
Her frustration is furthered by the fact that her work is challenging, but she still perseveres: “And I work like a dog, day and night, living off of coffee from a pot none of you wanna touch. So, excuse me if I have to go to the restroom a few times a day” (Melfi, 2016). Katherine lacked social support that could have made her life much easier and allowed her to work without disruptions.
At the time of the segregation, the availability of social services was significantly limited by the American laws that prohibited access of racial minorities to many benefits that their White counterparts took for granted. Besides, in recent years, the National Association of Social Workers acknowledged that the professionals working in the industry had not always been effective. For example, the social workers of the Progressive Era established and ran segregated settlement houses, while the suffragists prevented the African American population from gaining their right to vote (NASW, 2021). Therefore, a recommendation to improve the social services available to Katherine and her colleagues during segregation entails improved social worker education and advocacy for civil rights.
When social workers are educated on the experiences and perspectives of racially diverse clients, they will become effective in providing support services to the population. Crucial services relevant to the Hidden Figures case include high-quality education for Black students and advocacy for them to find job opportunities conducive to future career success. As suggested by Wright, Carr, and Akin (2021), a racially diverse perspective on social work is crucial to avoid promoting and sustaining White supremacy.
There are significant disparities between the social services provided to the Black and White populations, as illustrated in the scene in which Mary attends an all-white high school. The professor appears perplexed by the fact that she got in and says that the course is not intended to teach women, implying Black women. Familiar with such reactions, Mary sits in the classroom, thus encouraging the professor to continue his lesson. The scene depicts that the sphere of education was not welcoming to African Americans and made no efforts to help them succeed.
Conclusion
To conclude, Hidden Figures comments on the role of racial inequality in shaping Black women’s personal and professional experiences. The three main characters are gifted mathematicians who played crucial roles in the US space race but were consistently challenged by racial disparities during segregation. Their examples show that human development depends significantly on the environment in which an individual is placed. The more freedom and opportunities they are given, the easier it is to reach their maximum potential and pursue personal or professional goals. The examples illustrated in the paper are instrumental in suggesting that Mary, Katherine, and Dorothy became successful despite the lack of social support and not because they were supported in any way.
References
Cabral, C. (2020). NASA segregation: How one group of women challenged the norm. Web.
Kuther, T. L. (2017). Lifespan development: Lives in context. SAGE Publications.
Melfi, T. (2016). Hidden figures [Film]. Fox 2000 Pictures.
NASW. (2021). NASW apologizes for racist practices in American social work. Web.
Wright, K. C., Carr, K. A., & Akin, B. A. (2021). The whitewashing of social work history: How dismantling racism in social work education begins with an equitable history of the profession. Advances in Social Work, 21(2/3). Web.