Along with racial discrimination, Johnson experiences discrimination based on her gender. As explored in chapter one of Susan Basow’s “Gender Stereotypes and Roles”, masculinity is associated with competency, assertiveness, and being achievement-oriented, whereas femininity is associated with expressiveness, nurturance, and submissiveness. As with racial biases, gender biases are also ingrained in our culture, with men being seen as superior. In order to justify these concepts of the dominant, intelligent male, science has also influenced in favor of men as superior to women. The strength of these stereotypes and expectations are exceedingly prevalent in this film, as shown in Johnson’s interactions with both black and white men.
Although she was greatly discriminated against for her skin color during her work with the white-dominated Space Task Group, she was also highly underestimated as a female mathematician. Women, let alone black women, are not expected to be capable of comprehending advanced mathematics, for their femininity is seen to impede them from doing so. When she first arrived at her new assignment, Director Harrison requested that Johnson check the task group’s work by the end of the day. Head Engineer, Paul Stafford, slams a pile of papers in front of her and says, “This is more or less a dummy check”. Stafford associates mental ability with men such as himself, not with women. Therefore, he automatically assumes that she could not possibly be as mathematically gifted as a man could be, and therefore would not find a mistake in his work. Later in the film, Johnson requests authorization to attend Pentagon briefings in order to stay up to date with new changes in the mission that would affect her tedious calculations. Stafford tells her that there is “no protocol for women attending”. Being a woman, she is not thought of as obtaining the appropriate intelligence or authority to be in an important meeting space. Similarly, as discussed in Kathleen Okruhlik’s “Gender and the Biological Sciences”, there has been a continual theory that men obtain superior intelligence and mathematical ability, and multiple scientific attempts have been made to save this hypothesis. This hypothesis preservation is yet another example of science reflecting culture. Because women are expected to be less capable and less intelligent when compared to men, Johnson was not initially expected to be mathematically gifted and was not permitted to join briefings.
As displayed in the film, not only white males underestimated the capabilities of black women, but black males also misjudged women’s capabilities due to preconceived gender beliefs and values. When Johnson first meets Colonel Jim Johnson at a church event, he asks about her work with NASA in disbelief. He nonchalantly states “that’s pretty heavy stuff. They let women handle that sort of…?” before trailing off in realization of his offensive comment. Although the Colonel did not show a level of disgust and disrespectfulness that white men and women have displayed towards her, his comment demonstrates a clear gender bias that is rooted in superior notions of man; women are expected to be delicate and weak, and therefore incapable of strenuous physical or mental work.
Throughout the film, males, both black and white, subjected Johnson and her fellow black female colleagues to deep-rooted gender biases and stereotypes. As a woman working in a greatly masculinized job, she was intensely restricted and underestimated. Despite being an extraordinarily accomplished mathematician, the men around Johnson perceive her through a gender biased lens that has been perpetually supported culturally and scientifically. Because Western culture has continually characterized men as dominant and knowledgeable and women as submissive and unintelligent, science has been shaped to echo such beliefs and are then employed to justify treating women as inferior to men.
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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/hidden-figures/taraji-p-henson-profile/
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Hidden Figures: Race and Gender Roles 