Who was behind the math at NASA when sending the first person to the moon? Many men were doing the math, but few women were too. The book, Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, is about four African American women who helped NASA with the math for sending the first people into space. The women didn’t go right into NASA, they started out small, teaching at schools. Getting jobs at NASA was hard since they were African American women. Dorothy Vaughan and Katherine Johnson, both accomplished, got important positions at NASA despite the color of their skin. Dorothy and Katherine showed that they can work just as hard as the men and white people at NASA, they show this by being the hardest workers in the area, determined to do their job correctly and precisely, and to work as hard as needed to do the thing they love.
Dorothy Vaughan accomplished more than most African American women did in her time at NASA because she worked harder than anyone around her. She helped African American women that worked in her group get higher jobs, and to show that African American women were
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Katherine worked hard because she knew and loved her job which was calculating the math to send people into space. Dorothy was the head of the west computing and her job was to make sure that the women in the group did the math correctly and send women to higher positions when other areas need them. This is how Katherine started working in the area 1244. Katherine tells the research division, “ There wasn’t one day when I didn’t wake up excited to go to work”(Shetterly 248). Math means a lot to Katherine because it is her passion. Katherine was always ready to do her job as well as do as much as she can because she worked hard and persevered her dream. Dorothy felt the same way as a supervisor for the west computing. They may not be successful in the same way, but Katherine and Dorothy both worked at NASA and earned their