“HIDDEN FIGURES” BOOK

Before being a successful film, Hidden Figures is a book written by Margot Lee Shetterly. The author recounts the true story of three African American mathematicians whose calculations enabled the United States to conquer space, while denouncing the injustice of a history that had forgotten them.

Published in 2016, Hidden Figures tells the fate of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, three women whose mathematical genius was crucial for NASA. Margot Lee Shetterly, daughter of an African American engineer who worked at NASA, delved into archives and testimonies to reveal these journeys that remained in the shadows for decades.

“These women calculated the trajectory of history, but their names were erased from the equations.”

Margot Lee Shetterly, author of “Hidden Figures”

image from the film “Hidden Figures”

The book highlights not only the intelligence and perseverance of these women but also the racial and sexist barriers they had to face in the segregated America of the 1950s and 1960s. Working in separate rooms, paid less than their male colleagues, they nonetheless accomplished major scientific feats, particularly for the Mercury mission and John Glenn's historic orbital flight.

“We are all smarter than the roles society assigns us.”

excerpt from the novel “Hidden Figures”

Book details :

To go further:

Article on forgotten women scientists:

“Hidden Figures” the movie :