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Maricruz Rosas

Professor Granillo

English 103

30 May 2019

See a person for their whole; They are not a fraction

The truth is that the American society has failed women in the past and present society.

Women are supposed to have the same rights and opportunities as men, but the American society

is still on the patriarchal system. Women who are from multicultural backgrounds have a

challenging life because of racial inequality, and oppression of leadership. For instance, in the film

“Hidden Figures” it depicts how African American women decipher their life within the

corporation of NASA because they were judged by race and the position an African American

woman can obtain in the corporation. The film accomplished to portray these individuals as

empowering women who broke down the glass ceiling despite their own race, and sex they were

given to work with. The director Theodore Melfi’s “Hidden Figure” asserts that the American

society is male dominated, while the film empowers women to reach for an equal dominated

society. Components of the film exemplify critical race theory and Feminism through the

discussion of intersectionality, everyday racism a woman faces and how women brought down the

glass ceiling. Thus “Hidden Figures” acknowledges that the American society is keeping women

from equal opportunities, but women need to branch out to present themselves before the world

labels them as a product instead of an individual within the society.

“Hidden Figures” the film was about three African American women who worked for

NASA. The film was set back in time were segregation was nearly eliminated, but there were still

such things as colored restrooms, and fountains. These women that worked in NASA were hard
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working African American women that knew mathematics and science. The main character was

Katherine who worked closer to the group of white men helping the first man to go out to space.

These women were underestimated, underpaid, and not respected because of their skin color. At

the beginning of the film, women are treated unfairly because they were working hard positions.

They were also changed from assignments into more up-ranking assignments despite being a black

woman. These three women were highly discriminated because they had oppression factors that

made them look ignorant and inferior. Despite the disadvantage, these women proved to be the

most important people in NASA because they got the Friendship 7 in space. These African

American women proved themselves within the American society, but the impact was not enough

to change the dominance of the world because the American society still believes in white

supremacy.

Particularly, the American world is male dominated in which the privileged are white

American citizens. As the director Melfi asserted within the film, “You can’t apply for freedom,

freedom is never granted to the oppressed, it has to be demanded, taken” (00:33:48-00:33:54

Melfi). In the film Levi is telling his wife how they don’t live in a world of opportunity because

of their race and position of dominance. The characters know their place within the society, and

this means that they know that it is ran by white males who are superior from other Americans.

The film communicates that the world revolves around white men and there is no change needed

because they are the ones taking the high-ranking jobs, and the freedom. They have

intersectionality within the system and the film acknowledges that even when the world is

primarily dominated by men it needs to shift into an equal contribution of men and women of

multicultural backgrounds. If it doesn’t happen it will keep the world silenced with racism and

discrimination by a white supremist society. In “No longer Invisible: Understanding the

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Psychosocial Impact of Skin Color Stratification in the Lives of African American Women” by J.

Camille Hall states, “lies in helping them to redefine their strength in ways that simultaneously

enable them to reclaim historical sources of power and yet reject the exploitation that has often

accompanied skin color stratification”. Women need to regain power to fully understand that there

is pride within their skin and gender. Women have been in fear that the supremist will ignore them,

but they need to be included within the society because women have strength even when patriarchy

claims them to be weak and sensitive. These characteristics are being misled from the governing

powers; thus this can impact the rest of the society because it will create a balance that allow the

view point of men and women.

Subsequently, there is intersectionality in “Hidden Figures” which is the discrimination of

social construct because the women are not given the position they want. The women within the

film constantly communicated the disadvantage of their skin color and gender because it is the

limiting factor from them achieving their goal of having a position they dream off. The workers

were treated unfairly because of their race or the oppression of being a woman in NASA. In

“Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality Identity Politics and Violence Against Women of Color”

by the theorist Kimberly Crenshaw states intersectionality to be, “ In mapping the intersections of

race and gender, the concept does engage dominant assumptions that race and gender are

essentially separate categories…that ultimately disrupt the tendencies to see race and gender as

exclusive or separable”( 1244). The theorist communicates that the American society have the

misconception of seeing race and sex as separate problems, but at times they correlate into a

problem. The need for intersectionality is extremely important to the African American women or

multi-cultural women in general because the problem that they face are seen as sexist problems.

Intersectionality allows for a feminist view in which the problem needs to be addressed towards a
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woman of color because women are being discriminated in their jobs. Intersectionality allows

women to be seen as a whole and this helps them because their objective is to reach equality within

the American society. It helps them be seen for their talents instead of what they are physically

seen as because that does not accurately represent the person they are.

Furthermore, intersectionality can be seen when Mary Jackson brakes down the

discrimination that she faces when she is proposed a job in the engineering department in NASA.

In “Hidden Figures” the scene states, “There is another opening in the engineer training program,

Mary a person with engineer’s mind should be an engineer, you can’t be a computer the rest of

your life, Mr. Zielinski, I’m a Negro Woman. I’m not gonna entertain the impossible” (00:14:18-

00:15:46 “Hidden Figures”). The reason that Mary states that she is both is because she didn’t

want to confuse her coworker with, I am a woman, or I am African American. She stated both to

get it clear on how discriminated she is where she has to point out the obvious trait to her life. The

fact that her coworker presented her with the job opening was seen as an offense to her because he

should have known better. The reason to it is because he knows that African American people are

oppressed, and African American women are not up to consideration. Even if she tries hard there

are always going to be barriers that bring her down the stair case and where the women will always

fight to get her opportunity. For instance, Gilbert Sandra M., Gubar Susan in “The Mad Women in

the Attic states”, “It is debilitating to be any woman in a society where woman are warned that if

they do not behave like angels they must be monsters” (53). Mary just declined the offer because

she knew that no one was going to fight for her and the response she gave was how the society

expected her to react in which she acted professionally. The problem is that the society is

oppressing African American women and Multi-cultural women because they are not getting the

job or the treatment they wish to have. Even Multi-cultural men have a better standing within the
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American society because of the gender they have. Woman have to outweigh men, but all they

want to do is be acknowledged for their intelligence and for getting the job done. Women want

this for themselves because they want to succeed, and they know no other individual is going to

liberate them from the oppression they were born with. Women have to hold themselves above

others to constantly prove that they are worthy of the places, objects, and relationships that they

have. They are tired of having to constantly refrain themselves because the society said this or that.

African American and Multi-cultural woman want a voice within the American society but because

they do so they get oppressed by racism.

For instance, women are in between the barrier of subordination and authorship because

they are fighting in a place that doesn’t have a room for their dream of being equal. Subordination

and authorship are the concepts of Feminism and Critical Race theory that represent the oppression

within the community of multi-racial women. Subordination in “Mapping the Margins:

Intersectionality Identity Politics and Violence Against Women of Color” presents, “framework

for a narrow interpretation of the data because it leaves untouched the possibility that these two

tracks may intersect” (Crenshaw 1278). Thus, the theorist Crenshaw discusses American society

understand that subordination is meant for accuracy in women’s oppression because it allows for

the society to see that there is more than one point that combines into one massive problem. The

problem is the inequality that women face and the authorship because women are seen as objects.

Women are seen as objects because they still follow what the society say a woman should be. Like

what they should wear to work or the attitude and personality a woman has to present. Multi-racial

women have a special case because they are told to wear different clothing and are supposed to be

hidden from the supremist society by not interfering with them and accomplishing what they are

told. “Hidden Figures” states, “Mr. Harrison’s computer reporting. Take the desk in the back. I’ll
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get your work in a…bit, Mr. Harrison won’t warm up to you. Don’t expect it. Do your work, keep

your head down” (00:17:00-00:17:30 “Hidden Figures”). The white women was harsh to

Katherine because as she raised her head she realized she was an African American woman who

didn’t need to be treated like the rest of her department. The people working alongside them were

only white male coworkers and the two women were Katherine and the receptionist for Mr.

Harrison. Kathrine was not only subordinated by the white women, but by the rest of her

coworkers. This is a huge impact to the African American women because it proves that multi-

racial women are still at a disadvantage even when white women are still oppressed but because

of their race they “have” the right to oppress the other races. The difference is that the American

society does not realize that being white is privileged, but the subcategories of sex determines who

gets to oppress who.

Therefore, “Hidden Figures” used Katherine to demonstrate that intelligence is what

eliminates the authorship within the American society because of patriarchy. Even when white

women oppress multi-cultural women it is because of the patriarchal ideas that are repressed in

women that cause fear within women to lash out and create a difference. Gilbert Sandra M., Gubar

Susan in “Madwomen in the Attic” States, “a radical fear that she cannot create, that because she

can never become a “precursor” the act of writing will isolate or destroy her” (49). Women can

only act and speak according to the American society. If white men are superior and white women

are higher than a multi-racial woman then they are the only ones who can out speak the women of

color. The “Madwomen in the Attic” asserts that a woman cannot act out because this isolates her

from their community. Women are stuck between being singled out and reaching the opportunity

that they have desired for the longest. Katherine in “Hidden Figures” does so when Mr. Harrison

sees Katherine’s work on the board and states, “Who’s work is that, I said whose work is that,
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Katherine Gobble” (00:42:48-00:43:58 “Hidden Figures”). In the office the secretary tells Mr.

Harrison that it was Katherine’s work and the reason why this was a huge deal was because

Katherine did not have clearance on part of the assignment and work that she put out on the board.

This means that Katherine did something that she wasn’t supposed to do because they didn’t give

her access to the resource, but instead she did it her way because she wanted progress for the

Freedom 7. There was no consequence stated because Mr. Harrison granted her clearance to create

a change for NASA in which the male coworkers could not present in the time she did. This African

American woman proved that her race or sex did not present inferiority instead it created awareness

that the white society has been discriminating them because of the harsh patriarchal issue that they

have been oppressed by.

Similarly, the film “Hidden Figures” did present the way Multi-cultural women held

themselves up for the change of equal opportunity. The women in the film aimed to present to

themselves and their families that they were capable of doing the incapable. Most of the African

American in the film had the knowledge that they did not have the right to fight, but majority

fought against the injustice so that there could be change. The only problem was that the white

society did not see this as a norm until for example NASA realized that these African American

ladies were leading great advancement into the machines. In “Gender Norms, Economic

Inequality, and Social Egg Freezing: Why Company Egg Freezing Benefits Will Do More Harm

Than Good” by Lauren Geisser asserts, “Economic Inequality has been rising for decades and

within the last ten years has grown worse for racial ethnic minorities” (195). From past to present

this means that the problem of equal opportunity in the work place is still caused by racial

inequality and there needs to be a solution. It’s the fact that some individuals are fine with

conforming and this does not create a world of conformality. Within the American society there
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still is economic inequality and this film represent how women want to change the status of racial

discrimination, and discrimination of gender in the work place. Women were critiqued highly off

and severely if they were a different race rather than white. The film overall wanted its audience

to see that African American women created a change within a top organization, and if they could

achieve this so could other women. The film was to empower multicultural women so the change

would not disintegrate because of patriarchy and instead it has advanced slowly where females are

becoming leaders in today’s American society.

In fact, “Hidden Figures” presented leadership within the three African American women

because they never gave up the objective they had in mind and the objective was to get what they

deserved without having to beg for it. In “The profile of an effective leadership in multicultural

context” by Lina Girdauskiene and Fidan Eyvazzade state, “Therefore, suggestions would be to

show more understanding, be open-minded, to show more of those stereotypical “mentoring”

characteristics in order to give the follower time to adapt” (20). Girdauskiene and Eyvazzade

suggest that in order for the American society to allow multicultural women into leadership there

needs to be mentoring for the discrimination of race and sex in the work force. The reason for it

so that people have time to adapt and analyze a change that will benefit the society because it will

produce more jobs and create a society that is strong minded that does not discriminate because of

a color. In “Hidden Figures”, “New assignment came down the pike, always changing around

here. It’s hard to keep up. Seems like they are going to need a permanent team to feed that IBM.

How big of a team? Thirty. To start… You’re quite welcome Ms. Vaughan” (1:49:35-1:50:09

“Hidden Figures”). Ms. Vaughan since the beginning of the film has been asking to be a supervisor

because of her expertise and the time she has been in the role of being a supervisor but was turned

down because she was told that she was a negro woman. Negro women could not have up ranking
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positions in the departments of NASA. Yet the film demonstrated that it was not late to praise the

women that lead Friendship 7 into space and to let the viewers know that hard work and

determination do not go out without a reward. “Hidden Figures” demonstrated that there was

inequality in race and the three African women had feminist ideas to spring out to the work with

their intelligence.

Ultimately, “Hidden Figures” aimed to bring down the ideology that the American society

should be male dominated, but instead it should be equal distribution of power with women and

men. The patriarchal society in the other hand did suppress the African American individuals in

this film but presented them in roles of leadership despite NASA criticizing them for being negro

and also including them with the connotation of their race. The women brought down the glass

ceiling by deteriorating the authorship that patriarchy embedded their minds with since birth. The

film also exemplified subordination to the American society because of the need of

intersectionality that the problem in not just gender or just race because it is an intersection of both

concepts. “Hidden Figures” gave power to the African American individuals in the film because

it proved that any individual is capable of creating the incapable because a person is a

representation of their wholeness.

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Works Cited

Crenshaw, Kimberle. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence

against Women of Color.” Stanford Law Review, vol. 43, no. 6, 1991, pp. 1241–

1299. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1229039.

Geisser, Lauren. “GENDER NORMS, ECONOMIC INEQUALITY, AND SOCIAL EGG

FREEZING: Why Company Egg Freezing Benefits Will Do More Harm Than

Good.” UCLA Women’s Law Journal, vol. 25, no. 2, Fall 2018, pp. 179–209. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=133271266&site=ehost-live.

Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic : The Woman Writer and the

Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. Vol. 2nd ed, Yale University Press,

2000. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=538706&site=eds-live.

Girdauskiene, Lina, and Fidan Eyvazzade. “The Profile of an Effective Female Leadership in

Multicultural Context.” Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 210, Dec. 2015,

pp. 11–20. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.11.323.

Hall, J.Camille. “No Longer Invisible: Understanding the Psychosocial Impact of Skin Color

Stratification in the Lives of African American Women.” Health & Social Work, vol. 42,

no. 2, May 2017, pp. 71–78. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1093/hsw/hlx001.