Hidden Figures Movie: A Story Of Women Overcoming Struggles

The movie Hidden Figures presents an interesting view of three African-American women working at NASA during the civil rights movement. Knowing this movie was based on a true story gives viewers a unique perspective on what some people faced during that era and how they worked through some of those difficult trials. In the movie we are presented with three woman facing distinct hardships, not only because of their race, but also their gender. Throughout this essay, I will be going more in depth on the message of this movie and the reason that it matters today.

I believe that this movie was created to show the struggles that these unsung heroes went through during this era, and to finally give some recognition to the important work they did to help America and their space program. Throughout the movie, we see many of the adversities these women faced because of their race and gender and the rejection and segregation that they were subjected to, not only from their coworkers but from the world. The movie provides many notable examples of this; one of these moments is when Mary Jackson decides to apply for the Engineer Training program at NASA. She is told by Vivian Mitchell that she must take more classes to be able to apply. Jackson then answers to this, “Every time we have a chance to get ahead, they move the finish line. ” I feel that this quote shows some of the feelings that various of these women had; they realized that they faced a lot more obstacles than some of their peers in the workplace, but even then, these women overcame these situations in very clever ways. I think that this movies message, or what this movie wanted to show its viewers was how these intelligent women broke down barriers during the era of the civil rights movement. They wanted to give recognition to these women who worked extremely hard to aid America in the Space Race against Russia, despite all the hardships they encountered along the way.

In the movie, when Katherine Johnson first arrives to her new assignment, she is received with stares; she even gets a trash can that needs to be emptied handed to her. Most of the people working in the department think lowly of her and they treat her with disrespect. Towards the end of the movie, we can see how her actions have changed the minds of many of her coworkers. When allowed into the briefing meeting, she becomes the first woman to ever be allowed into one of those meetings, and she even impresses many in the room. In the scene where John Glenn is about to be launched on his orbital missions, he asks the space team to “get the girl” to analyze the machines numbers. He even goes to say, “If she says they’re good, then I’m ready to go. ” This statement clearly shows the high regards that not only this astronaut, but many in the space team had for her towards the end of the movie.

I think that this movie was meant to show its viewers the way these women overcame struggles and broke down tremendous barriers, ultimately changing NASA and creating a more diverse environment their as a whole, not only aiding them, but future generations of women. I think that the reason this story is being told now is because today, we have changed as a society.