Katherine Goble-Johnson And Women's Equality

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Katherine Johnson was much more than a lady in a skirt solving equations. She was an important figure in African-American and women equality. This incredible lady faced hurdles like working with all white males, overcoming women stereotypes, and dealing with racism. All the while, she raised and supported her family while working a time-consuming and difficult job in which she worked many nights overtime. Katherine is amongst other great people as those who proved women and African-Americans are just as smart as white men.

Katherine Goble-Johnson was born on August 26, 1918. From a very young age, Katherine excelled in mathematics. The school she initially attended did not tend to her accelerated needs, so her parents enrolled her to a school that was on the West Virginia State College campus. After she graduated high school at age 14, she then went on to attend West Virginia State College. There, she took every mathematics class available to
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Women like Sally Ride, Eileen Collins, and Mae Jemison may not be where they are or have been if it wasn’t for the steps she took. These steps weren’t taken easily. These women endured racism and sexism to reach their dreams of being engineers and scientists. Katherine Goble later received a “role model” status in the world of science for her work with the NASA missions. Additionally, she also made the 2016 “BBC 100 Women” list showing the most influential women of 2016. One of her biggest awards was receiving a Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama for her spectacular work for NASA. Katherine received the Apollo Group Achievement Award in 1969 and was honored along with Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan in the recent film, Hidden Figures, revealing their important story to the world. Their legacy will be remembered as strong, pioneering women who have helped bring women to where they are

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