Still, most of them were grateful to have meaningful work (with the dark days of the Depression not so far behind them, and many of them supporting themselves and their children), and NASA paid handsomely for the time. This is ‘see it to be it’ in action.Īs Shetterly describes it, when these women took jobs as ‘computers’ during WWII labour shortages, workplaces in Virginia were still segregated and the women – especially the black women – were kept at arm’s length. “Growing up in Hampton, the face of science was brown like mine,” she says (page xiii). Her father worked with them so she grew up around them, and she took for granted their roles at NASA, the way children do. What’s more, Shetterly herself knew many of these women. Many numbers of black women have participated as protagonists in the epic of America. There weren’t just a handful of them – there were dozens and dozens. The first surprise of Hidden Figures was just how many black women worked as mathematicians and scientists at NASA. She offers a kind note at the beginning of the book about being faithful to that period, with regard to the use of epithets and pejoratives – it was nice to have a heads up, but honestly, that note made it sound worse than the actual text bore out.

Hidden Figures highlights the particular barriers for black women in the sciences as well as society at large, from the late 1930s through to the 1960s. Of course, by examining the roles these women played at NASA, Shetterly incidentally traces American history through WWII, the Cold War, and the space race. (And I’m not hiding anything: when you use an affiliate link on this page to make a purchase, you’re supporting this site with a small commission.

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly