Sexism As Portrayed In The Movie 'Hidden Figures'

The movie Hidden Figures introduced the lives of Mary Jackson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Katherine Johnson as they faced numerous struggles throughout their time working at NASA during the mid-1900s. Just like people of color during this time, these three women fought to be treated as equals to white men in the workplace. Despite their ability to complete tasks just as white men, they continued to be discriminated against. People who were white did not believe that African Americans were equal to them. Instead, white people felt they held economic and political power over them. The African Americans experienced discrimination in their day-to-day life that limited them to what they could achieve. Women who finished the same seventy-five tasks as

This was shown when the ladies were denied work. Sexism in the workplace was much overlooked in the early 1960s because the “man of the household” was expected to provide financially for their family, while the women were to raise the children or hold a role less financially rewarding if they worked. Women were also underestimated because no one thought they were capable of doing a job as well as a

The movie depicts Mary Jackson’s husband, Levi Jackson, as someone who repeatedly made rude, sly remarks about Mary working at NASA as a woman. He didn’t support Mary in her pursuit to become something that was not the expectation of society. During a church picnic, he was discussing Mary’s engineering program and why it would be a bad idea for her because she would have to spend less time at home taking care of the kids. If taking this class, she would be spending additional time away from the household and perhaps would not make it anywhere in the end. In the 1960s, women were still very accustomed to being stay-at-home moms and letting men be the sole breadwinners for the