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The Positive And Negative Representation Of STEM Women In Film

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Inspired by a true story, “hidden figures” shines a positive light on Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, brilliant African American women who played a vital role in the space race while working at NASA. The film revealed that these mathematicians belonged to a group called “computers” before computers were frequently used machines. The movie promotes a positive message about the gender and racial progression in the U.S STEM community. However, this story opens our eyes about an important topic: Why are women still being underrepresented in the STEM community more than 50 years later?

Let’s start from the beginning. Women often receive many signals form a young age that indirectly discourage them from entering STEM fields. Instead, we are told we should be nurses or teachers. For many women, the reasoning behind this is because we lack role models that are a part of the STEM community. Representation matters and the saying holds true that “if she can’t see it, she can’t be it”. In addition, the negative perception and stereotypes of STEM women being “geeky” and unattractive” have an impact. Frequent portrayal of in the media only reinforce this idea, brainwashing our girls to be self-conscious about their chosen paths. Even worse, it brainwashes our men into thinking that pretty women cannot be a part of this field. …show more content…

Believe it or not, as an attractive woman studying Information Technology, this is something I have experienced first-hand. Just the other, I was asked what I am studying. When I replied Information Technology, I was shocked by the response. “I’ve never seen a girl in IT that looks like you.” Those disgusting words were not the first stereotypical comment that a women in STEM has heard, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Nevertheless, situations contribute to the lack of women in the STEM

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Katherine Johnson was a strong African-American woman who isn’t often talked about. Only within the last two years at the age of 98, does she start getting recognition. A movie was released about her and the women working in the NACA´s branch in 2016. She is the woman who discovered the math that hadn’t yet been created, for launch and landing in the space race. Katherine made these amazing discoveries whilst dealing with constant segregation and oppression for being an African-American Woman.

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Amelia Martinez Mrs. Aderholdt 8th Grade Language Arts 18 April 2023 Powerful Women in Science How did Katherine Johnson and the other women who worked with her at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) impact the Space Race? During the time of the Space Race, women were hired within the scientific field as computers. The “computers” were hired to calculate the complex equations that space travel and research entailed.

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Girls are beginning to see a deep gender bias from very young ages. The media perpetuates this bias by editing women to be inhumanly perfect. Advertising is set around people’s insecurities. This is giving girls the idea that the only thing that matters about them is the way they look and how men perceive them. Women are said to spend more money on beauty than they do on their own education (Netflix).

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This articles main argument is that there is a bias in the STEM community and work field of the L.G.B.T. community. Suri’s based this argument on his own experiences and the experiences of others. Suri supports this argument based on personal experiences, the experiences of others in the engineering field, statistics, and policies in certain companies. Suri persuades the audience by providing many examples of discrimination to the L.G.B.T. community and how it affects them and

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Makayle R. Tillman Liz Wilfong Women in Literature W01 09 April 2023 The film Hidden Figures by Theodore Melfi defines how colored women defeated segregation within the workplace and became prominent members of history during the 1960s. The film begins by showing the audience a group of colored women working in the West Wing of NASA acting as calculators for engineers. There are three major women who go down in the history books for their accomplishments during the 1960s launch for the first American in space and segregation. Katherine Goble, later known as Katherine Johnson, was dedicated to the Computational Building in honor of her accomplishments in space travel calculations.

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Katherine, Mary, and Dorothy play an integral part to NASA's team of human computers. As employees, these women are responsible for calculations for NASA, before the mass use of computers. However, since Virginia is a segregated state, African American female computers need to work in a different areas that’s almost more than 1 mile away from the actual headquarters at the Langley Research Center. Yet, the U.S. competitive personae that led the arms race, against the Soviet Union, into space that NASA becomes a meritocracy. Because of her aptitude in mathematical concepts, Katherine is appointed to an uncommon task, attempting to get Glenn into space.

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1671 Words | 7 Pages

The article “Perceptions of Stereotypes Applied to Women Who Publicly Communicate Their STEM Work” by Merryn McKinnon and Christine O’Connell in the Humanities & Social Sciences Communications talks about the stereotypes behind the STEM-oriented field and how women are viewed differently from men since it is considered a “man's job”. When you look at the word stereotype, its definition is a generalized belief about a particular category of people but to Merryn McKinnon and Christine O’Connell, it's more than that. They change how the world views things such as gender roles and how people view what jobs men do and what jobs women do, it has control over our society and futures. Women were being seen as too emotional when trying to talk about

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Hoekenga (2012) noted that the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the Hispanic population in the U.S will reach 132.8 million by the year 2050, when almost one in three Americans will be Hispanic. Yet today Hispanic students (as well as other minorities) continue to be underrepresented in the STEM disciplines (Hoekenga, 2012). In the face of these disparities Hispanic scientists have had a major and lasting impact on the world around them. In many cases they overcame obstacles, including racism and sexism, poverty, cultural and family expectations, and lack of mathematics background, in order to work and excel in the fields that they love.

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Although there are many circumstances that contribute to choosing a STEM career, positive role models are the most influential in empowering adolescents to choose an education in STEM. Currently in the United States, while the dependence on STEM workers is increasing, the interest

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The smallest of details are often the ones that can capture the life of an astonishing person onto paper, canvas, or film. The detailed shots of these devoted people are crucial for us to pinpoint in order to get the full picture of their role in society. Professor Espana pointed out that she looks up to the brilliant Katherine Johnson, an African American woman who, along with her fellow human computer friend’s broke barriers while working at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the Space Race. Throughout the life of Professor Espana, she unknowingly embodies the character Katherine Johnson in the film “Hidden Figures” by her outstanding contributions in showing generations of young people they can excel

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Steps toward diversifying STEM fields–such as Kimberly Bryant founding Black Girls Code–are especially beneficial to the cause, but we have to remember that expanding STEM will be a lengthy process; just as it takes numerous, continuous steps to run and finish a marathon, so will the journey for diversity in STEM be as extensive. A diversification in STEM needs to happen. The more variant the minds of tomorrow 's scientists are, the more potential there is for new innovations and inventions. But what is holding this undertaking back is the same thing that hinders equal rights: deep rooted stereotypes in our society.

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Research is very essential to the development of society, as research findings can support an ongoing idea, create new theories and notions, and ultimately propose new methods of action in all fields of study. Whether it be to find new treatments for patients in the world of medicine, or to advance an already established idea in technology, the use of research is an imperative technique to reconstruct and renovate prior knowledge into new knowledge that carries broad relevance. In Engage to Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: Report to the President, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) specifies that the United States needs to produce roughly one million more alumnae in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to combat the lack of researchers and workers in such a mounting field. To do so, the (PCAST) called for a reconsideration of the traditional laboratory/lecture course to incorporate an authentic, hands-on research experience (Olsen and Riordan, 2012). This being said, it can be inferred

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When she was studying in a rural public school, her principal expressed, “girls never go on in science and math.” This shows the biased role models in American K-12 schools. Teachers cannot foster the initiative of learning about science if they continue the stereotype threat. The negative stereotypes transmitted from schoolteachers affect girls’ science attitudes and eventually undermine their academic performance and interest in science. Female students are afraid of selecting a STEM major as their future career, because their science teachers indicate that they cannot get the same successful academic achievement in this field as men

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Gender Representation in movies Gender representation in movies have not changed over the years. Movies are generally male dominated with very few movies where females are the lead. The movie that I chose to look into for this topic is Disney's Mulan. In Mulan the emperor goes around asking each family to send one male to join the Chinese army.

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