{"id":82040,"date":"2019-10-20T20:54:15","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T01:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=82040"},"modified":"2019-10-24T15:20:40","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T20:20:40","slug":"hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Hidden Figures\u2019 author brings to life the visionary women mathematicians behind early NASA launches"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Anne Snabes
\n<\/strong>Medill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

The pioneering African American women engineers and mathematicians who helped land Neil Armstrong on the moon also maintained a strong family life outside of work and some played bridge and music, according to author Margot Lee Shetterly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were very passionate about their hobbies and their families, as passionate as they were about their work,\u201d Shetterly told a packed audience at Northwestern University\u2019s Evanston campus Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

Three of these women \u2014 Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson \u2014 are the focus of \u201cHidden Figures,\u201d\u00a0 Shetterly’s book\u00a0 that was adapted into an Academy Award-nominated movie. The book is about the women at NASA who were called \u201ccomputers,\u201d because they made the calculations that modern-day computers make, guided instead by their own prowess and simple adding machines.<\/p>\n

Shetterly talked to the Northwestern community about her own story growing up in the city in Virginia where NASA\u2019s first field center was located after the space agency was created in 1958. She explained what life was like for women who worked at this facility. She said there are more opportunities for women of color in computer science and engineering now, but some still feel isolated as they are the only women of color in their work spaces.
\n<\/p>\n

\"\"
Margot Lee Shetterly, the author of “Hidden Figures,” said the women engineers and mathematicians at NASA in the\u00a0 late 1950s to the early 1960s had other interests such as basketball. (Anne Snabes\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shetterly grew up in Hampton, Virginia, where her father was an atmospheric scientist at NASA\u2019s Langley Research Center. He worked in the same center as the women, but was a generation younger than them. Shetterly said his career was supported by the work these women did in the late 1950s and early 1960s.<\/p>\n

She told the Medill News Service and other reporters that \u201cHidden Figures\u201d was \u201csort of an investigation into my story and my place in American history.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Shetterly, the women \u201ccomputers\u201d at NASA produced work similar to what an Excel spreadsheet provides with automatic calculations today.\u00a0 She said they applied certain operations to values to obtain their results, capturing data from wind tunnels and airplanes. They then had to determine what this information meant for space exploration.<\/p>\n

When a woman moved to a higher up position, she could start designing experiments. Originally, the engineers and mathematicians studied helicopters, airplanes and other planes. Once the Space Age started, though, they worked on Project Mercury. This project allowed Alan Shepard to complete a suborbital flight in 1961 and then sent John Glenn to orbit the Earth in 1962.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge became not, \u2018How are we going to get Plane A from Point B to Point C?\u201d, but how are we going to shoot him into space, orbit him around the Earth and bring him back to Earth safely?\u201d Shetterly told the Medill News Service.<\/p>\n

Katherine Johnson calculated the first flight trajectories for the Mercury mission and others. She also worked on the Apollo 11 moon landing that allowed Neil Armstrong to walk on the moon in July 1969.<\/p>\n

In addition to working, some of women engineers and mathematicians at NASA were mothers. They also had hobbies, such as playing music or bridge. According to Shetterly, Johnson and her friends attended the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were huge basketball fans,\u201d Shetterly said.<\/p>\n

She meets women of color in computer science and engineering at events. She said she can\u2019t believe how much things have changed and how much more opportunity there is.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd yet, in the conversations I have with these individual women, there\u2019s a sense of being the only one, of being isolated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0 African American women in her book worked together as \u201ccomputers\u201d at NASA.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile there is more opportunity now \u2026 there is less of that sense of cohesion as well and a greater sense of isolation,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

Sarah Peko-Spicer, a graduate student in statistics at Northwestern who attended the talk, said that learning the histories of people you know can lead to \u201csuch a thorough and comprehensive book.\u201d She added that listening to Shetterly talk made her consider digging through her grandfather\u2019s memorabilia from World War II and seeing what she could learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people that you\u2019re growing up around can have such complex and important and fascinating histories,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Heather Pinkett, an associate professor of molecular biosciences, interviews Shetterly at Northwestern. (Anne Snabes\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Anne Snabes Medill Reports The pioneering African American women engineers and mathematicians who helped land Neil Armstrong on the moon also maintained a strong family life outside of work and some played bridge and music, according to author Margot Lee Shetterly. \u201cThey were very passionate about their hobbies and their families, as passionate as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":621,"featured_media":82055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4780,28,29,2951,30,675],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2019","category-general-interest","category-health-and-science","category-politicsnational-security","category-public-affairs","category-social-justice"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Hidden Figures\u2019 author brings to life the visionary women mathematicians behind early NASA launches - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Hidden Figures\u2019 author brings to life the visionary women mathematicians behind early NASA launches - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Anne Snabes Medill Reports The pioneering African American women engineers and mathematicians who helped land Neil Armstrong on the moon also maintained a strong family life outside of work and some played bridge and music, according to author Margot Lee Shetterly. \u201cThey were very passionate about their hobbies and their families, as passionate as […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-21T01:54:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-10-24T20:20:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/10\/panelfinal-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"473\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"annesnabes2020\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"annesnabes2020\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/\",\"name\":\"\u2018Hidden Figures\u2019 author brings to life the visionary women mathematicians behind early NASA launches - Medill Reports Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/10\/panelfinal-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-21T01:54:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-10-24T20:20:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/bfc16d820881f99674ef85444cfd3a3d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/10\/panelfinal-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/10\/panelfinal-1.jpg\",\"width\":1100,\"height\":473,\"caption\":\"Heather Pinkett, a molecular biosciences professor, interviews Shetterly at Northwestern.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"\u2018Hidden Figures\u2019 author brings to life the visionary women mathematicians behind early NASA launches\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\",\"name\":\"Medill Reports Chicago\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/bfc16d820881f99674ef85444cfd3a3d\",\"name\":\"annesnabes2020\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dad0fab361ce92dd3d8e547fefe0ae12b985c3f6738b300eced16a7b9817b088?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dad0fab361ce92dd3d8e547fefe0ae12b985c3f6738b300eced16a7b9817b088?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"annesnabes2020\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/annesnabes2020\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u2018Hidden Figures\u2019 author brings to life the visionary women mathematicians behind early NASA launches - Medill Reports Chicago","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u2018Hidden Figures\u2019 author brings to life the visionary women mathematicians behind early NASA launches - Medill Reports Chicago","og_description":"By Anne Snabes Medill Reports The pioneering African American women engineers and mathematicians who helped land Neil Armstrong on the moon also maintained a strong family life outside of work and some played bridge and music, according to author Margot Lee Shetterly. \u201cThey were very passionate about their hobbies and their families, as passionate as […]","og_url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/","og_site_name":"Medill Reports Chicago","article_published_time":"2019-10-21T01:54:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-10-24T20:20:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1100,"height":473,"url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/10\/panelfinal-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"annesnabes2020","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"annesnabes2020","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/","name":"\u2018Hidden Figures\u2019 author brings to life the visionary women mathematicians behind early NASA launches - Medill Reports Chicago","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/10\/panelfinal-1.jpg","datePublished":"2019-10-21T01:54:15+00:00","dateModified":"2019-10-24T20:20:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/bfc16d820881f99674ef85444cfd3a3d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/10\/panelfinal-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/10\/panelfinal-1.jpg","width":1100,"height":473,"caption":"Heather Pinkett, a molecular biosciences professor, interviews Shetterly at Northwestern."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/hidden-figures-author-brings-to-life-the-visionary-women-mathematicians-behind-early-nasa-launches\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\u2018Hidden Figures\u2019 author brings to life the visionary women mathematicians behind early NASA launches"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/","name":"Medill Reports Chicago","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/bfc16d820881f99674ef85444cfd3a3d","name":"annesnabes2020","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dad0fab361ce92dd3d8e547fefe0ae12b985c3f6738b300eced16a7b9817b088?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dad0fab361ce92dd3d8e547fefe0ae12b985c3f6738b300eced16a7b9817b088?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"annesnabes2020"},"url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/annesnabes2020\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/621"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}