67 pages • 2 hours read
Hidden Figures
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Themes
Racism in the United States
The overarching theme of racism in American life is shown most prominently through the careers of the protagonists, but the events of the time are never far behind. Shetterly provides background on how racism played out in education, politics, and society at large, as well as how the growing civil rights movement fought to counter it.
Each of the main characters has to work to overcome the barriers in front of her because of race. We see this from the start in terms of family life and education. Some had no access to public secondary schools—not even segregated ones—because their towns did not provide it. For instance, Mary attended Phenix High School, affiliated with Hampton Institute, because the city of Hampton only gave African Americans schooling through primary school. Likewise, Katherine’s family separated so she and her siblings could attend high school. While her father stayed behind in White Sulphur Springs for work, the four children and their mother moved more than 100 miles away for the children’s secondary education because their hometown did not provide it for African Americans.
One of the ways Shetterly illustrates this theme is by comparing Langley, a federal institution, with the state in which it is located. While the federal government was slowly making progress in removing barriers for African Americans during the time frame discussed, the state of Virginia stubbornly clung to them. Progress was shown by the various executive orders issued by successive presidents, starting with Franklin D. Roosevelt. Executive Order 8802 allowed Dorothy to pursue a job at Langley in 1943. Shetterly provides examples of other such orders that helped to level the playing field, culminating in number 10925, issued by John Kennedy, that introduced affirmative action in hiring African Americans for federal positions.
Conversely, one of the most glaring examples of Virginia’s continued discrimination comes from Farmville, where Dorothy taught school before moving to Hampton. From 1959 to 1964, the school board chose to shut down the entire public school system of the town rather than integrate it as mandated by the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education. Shetterly also gives examples related to Langley’s own city of Hampton. While the book’s main characters are moving up in their careers at Langley, they are barred from taking professional development courses at the local high school until they receive special permission. Even on the grounds of Langley, local laws apply, so the cafeteria and bathrooms are segregated by race until societal changes occur. These details help Shetterly convey how racism permeated the protagonists’ daily lives.
Sexism in the American Workplace
The door to careers outside the home for women was cracked open by World War II. Because men were off fighting, large numbers of women were hired to ensure the continuation of the massive production needed. After the war, some of the women left to raise families as men returned to the workforce, but many did not. Some chose to both work and raise a family. However, as Shetterly shows through the women she writes about at Langley, their opportunities were fewer, pay was lower, and promotions were less likely compared to men. In some areas, promotions were only given to men, no matter a woman’s qualifications.
Katherine was prevented from going to editorial meetings, where the real action pertaining to her work took place. She asked repeatedly to attend and was simply told, “Girls don’t go to the meetings” (179). It was an unwritten rule that “Men were engineers and women were computers; men did the analytical thinking and women did the calculations. Men gave the orders and women took notes” (180-81).
Even into the 1970s, after circumstances improved for women, the problem of gender imbalance and differing expectations persisted. The experience of Christine, the youngest of the four women profiled, illustrates this well. Her first few years after being hired were unremarkable, as she was given mostly routine work. Then, in 1972, she overheard her boss saying she would be laid off in a wave of cutbacks; however, a man with a similar background and the same length of employment was promoted to an engineering group. She boldly went to the division head and complained that her talents weren’t properly utilized. He reassigned her to a new work group where she was soon given the task of writing a complex computer program. She went on to earn her doctorate.
Perseverance Pays Off
Despite the twin burdens of racism and sexism, the women portrayed in the book rose at Langley, which is a testament to their dogged perseverance. Each of the women repeatedly faced hurdles at work, in society, and in their personal lives. Yet they persisted and overcame most everything that stood in their way. The fact that the women were at Langley in the first place was statistically near impossible:
In 1940, just 2 percent of all black women earned college degrees, and 60 percent of those women became teachers, mostly in public elementary and high schools. Exactly zero percent of those 1940 college graduates became engineers. And yet, in an era when just 10 percent of white women and not even a full third of white men had earned college degrees, the West Computers had found jobs and each other at the ‘single best and biggest aeronautical research complex in the world’ (40).
Once there, they worked their way up. When Katherine was told that women didn’t attend editorial meetings, she kept asking until they finally let her in. This led to her involvement in the space program throughout the 1960s. In her personal life, she was widowed at a young age, a single mother to three girls while holding down a demanding job; this didn’t stop her either.
Mary’s motivation was similar. Her route to Langley, and within Langley, was a bit circuitous, but she continued striving. Her grit and determination led to a job at the Supersonic Pressure Tunnel, where she distinguished herself. When John Becker, the division chief, questioned her calculations (as recounted in Chapter 11), she might have deferred to his extreme seniority. She was certain of her work, however, and turned out to be right. As Shetterly puts it, “That’s what marked you as someone who should move ahead” (115). Toward the end of her career, when Mary could see that the opportunities for advancing in her field were probably dried up, she recognized the potential that the position of Federal Women’s Program Manager held. By persevering in her professional and social lives, she accrued a lifetime of experience that she could put to use in ensuring greater opportunities for other women.
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By Margot Lee Shetterly
