Hidden Figures – A Review

The book of the month was an interesting choice suggested to me. This is based on a true story where female mathematicians at NASA worked on calculations that supported one of America’s greatest achievements in space. Margot Shetterly did a fantastic job where she captured the lives of these phenomenal women before they worked at NASA. Margot captured the history of Dorothy Vaughan, Miriam Mann and Katherine Johnson’s work when they were wives, mothers and teachers before they obtained jobs as mathematicians. Margot places her readers us, firmly in her vision of the lady’s personal trauma’s, struggles, and what it was like in America during those decades. The way they pushed back against racist rules and do something uncommon.

Marot spoke about the cold war and the way ‘the computers’ aka mathematicians were treated at Langley. She explained how their lives were separate to other neighbourhoods, as well as where black families could eat, socialise, and districts only they could live in. She writes about how United States treated black people, women of colour and how within Langley there were still rules but how these ladies began to push against those societal norms.

There were many significant moments in the book that explain how difficult the lives of black women in America were. One example is within the lunch hall at Langley, where a table specifically assigned for coloured women would be. Yet, Miriam kept swiping the sign reserved for women of colour as an act of rebellion to those social norms.

The difference between Langley and the rest of America was that individuals at Langley began to treat the women like professionals and accepted them for their knowledge. This made a difference when it came to making strides towards the country moving ahead in the Space Race. The white, male engineers needed to trust the ladies to compute calculations. This book gives us information about how the ladies, families and the world went through the civil rights movement, the outcry of equality across America. Yet, within their jobs they were building trust and pushing boundaries towards making themselves known within papers and reports. It wasn’t easy and the hours were long, but the women enjoyed what they did. You could see this in the way they put committed themselves to the role, how they sacrificed their time at home, and for an income that is incomparable to what black women were earning in schools as teachers back then. This book even delves into the scientific reasons of what was happening with their calculations, what it meant when actual machines were introduced to calculate figures and also what happened when successful space missions were on the verge of changing the world.

This book captures the story of where women were, how they evolved within their environment and their pursuit for passion and love for mathematics, despite the norm in that day in age. These women have become known to be the reason why America had been so successful in their missions to space and the lunar landing.

The book allows me to take pride of these women’s tenacity, their grit, their hard work and their purpose in life. It also makes me proud to be a woman and this beautifully written book gave me so much more than the already brilliant movie had given us. If you’ve seen the movie, yes it enhances certain story lines for dramatic effect, but this book gives you so much more background, foundation and digging deeper into the women who made history.

There is also a review on You Tube, simply click here and ensure you subscribe and hit the notification bell if you want to see brand new content.

If you enjoyed this review, have read the book please post a comment below on your thoughts and why it would be useful for people to read more. April’s book club title is ‘The Buddha & The Baddass’ by Vishen Lakhiani. There will also be a review on it too, so make sure you check back in a few weeks.

Thanks for your time, Tulshi.