“Science” is the term encompassing the study of our natural and physical world; its structures and behaviours. A “scientist” is an intellectual with expert knowledge of a particular branch of science. From the intense study of the human body we gain knowledge of disease and are then able to construct medicines. By observing the nature of the stars in the sky we are able to assemble a broader perception of the universe in which we live. Science is the foundation of our society; the knowledge, health, sources of entertainment and standard of living we have today has been built upon centuries of scientific study and discovery. It is for this reason, I find it incredibly perplexing that science and scientists have not been immune to discrimination.
In school, we discuss Newton, Einstein and Pythagoras. At university, I have considered Fermat, Euler and Euclid. With this education, it wouldn’t be outrageous to believe that female scientists accomplished very little. However, this is definitely not the case. The list of influential women within science is, actually, a rather extensive one; but I would like to focus on one in particular.
Katherine Johnson, an African American physicist and mathematician, made substantial contributions to the US’ aeronautics and space programmes at NASA in the 1950s and 60s. From a young age, Katherine was a gifted mathematician with a passion to succeed. Her early career consisted of teaching jobs; as work within mathematics for an African American woman were few and far between. In 1953, Katherine was offered a job at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, which she accepted and so started her career within the early NASA team.
For five years, Katherine worked in an office labelled “Coloured Computers”. The women who worked within that office were required to do all of their daily activities completely segregated from the white men. Regardless of how important their work was, these women were unable to put their names on reports they had contributed to. Katherine herself said that women needed to be “assertive and aggressive” in order to be recognised; which, she was.
When NASA disbanded the “computing pool” in 1958, Katherine worked as an Aerospace Technologist until her retirement. A women, who was once unable to use the same bathroom as her scientist colleagues, was now a vital part of an important team. She calculated the trajectory for the first American man in space, she calculated the launch window for the 1961 Mercury Mission, she plotted back up navigational charts and was asked personally to verify the numbers for John Glen’s orbit around the Earth. Katherine helped calculate trajectories for the 1969 Apollo mission; as well as helping to establish confidence in new technologies with her work with digital computers.
Katherine Johnson is just one example of many under-appreciated women working in NASA at the time; and is just one of thousands of under-appreciated women contributors to science. Despite increasing rates of women studying mathematics and science at universities; the percentage of women within STEM careers is still extremely low. It is vital to celebrate and learn about women who were not only major contributors to science; but had to overcome all kinds of social barriers to do so.