Feminist Theory in The Film Hidden Figures

The movie Hidden Figures by Theodore Melfi implements feminist theory to portray the underlying concept of women being stigmatized differently from men when it comes to critical thinking as well as physical appearance due to the existing principle of male dominance. Hidden Figures is based on true events as three coloured women become the backbone of NASA and help with the spaceship launch regarded as the first American orbital exploration, in hopes of dominating Russia. This does not occur as simply as putting one and one together, the women of colour, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson lived in segregation era where they were constantly confronted by prejudice and the unjust treatments towards them from white people in their environment. 

For example, Dorothy Vaughan plays her role as the head of colored computers division and she also reminds her boss regarding her supervisor application as for a year, she does play a role as one but neither is she given the permanent position nor the proper salary at all. Moreover, Dorothy feels that her job is on the line as NASA orders IBM machines but despite all the difficulties and barriers, Dorothy makes it to the top and proves herself. A problem occurs when Al finds out that IBM calculation were not corresponding to the ones done previously. To overcome the failure, John Glenn refers Katherine to do the calculation for him. Hence, NASA’s goal to reach the orbital level succeeds. Secondly, throughout the movie, Sexism/ feminism is individually committed by Colonel Jim Johnson at the party. 

“Jim: Pastor mentioned you're a computer at NASA. 

Kathrine: Yes. 

Jim: What's that entail? 

Kathrine: We calculate the mathematics necessary to enable launch and landing for the space program. 

Jim: That's pretty heady stuff. 

Kathrine: Yes, it is. Jim: They let women handle that sort of.. That’s not what I mean.” 

The dialogues above elaborate on the undervalued thoughts and treatments relating to African-American women’s sex were thrown at her as she explained her contribution as human computer in NASA, Jim responds to it in skeptical manner. He finds it unusual for a company like NASA to employ women to do such “difficult” jobs. That is to say that personal sexism/ feminism committed by Colonel Jim manifests in social interaction which goes along with ruthless gestures. It can be assumed that being black male also gives Colonel Jim the chance to perform feminist in which it indicates that African-American women are at the bottom of societal hierarchy. 

“We don’t develop courage by being happy every day. We develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging diversity.” - Barbara de Angelis. This quote can be applied to both of the examples above as it showcases one has to overcome harsh stereotypes, judgements, and challenges to reach a level of satisfaction. You wake up one day feelings blessed will not just happen without you actually fighting for it and it will only occur on your behalf as you make yourself worth it by persevering through compressed and complicated times. The women in Hidden Figures had to persevere a lot due to the social constructs put on them by the society. 

To conclude, the women in the movie would have not been as valued as they were by the end of the movie if they had not hustle through the tough times which ultimately resulted in a happy lifestyle afterwards for them.