Hidden Figures: Women Leaders in Technology

Hidden Figures: Women Leaders in Technology

Lynsey Bish

Submitted to Dr. Jones

Principles of Management - MGT-300-GW1

Hidden Figures: Women Leaders in Technology

There are many examples throughout history of women functioning as leaders and innovators, fueling astounding developments in our cultural and scientific heritage. In all popular examples, women were still a marginalized group in society. Even further marginalized were African American women. During times of crisis or great national importance, this adversity often gave way to a breakdown of biases, enabling the innovative efforts of some to lift their groups out of the shadows. The heroes in Hidden Figures demonstrate that individualism can function to foster a greater appreciation for collectivism in society.

Women, Men, and Hofstede’s Culture

In the 1970s, social psychologist Geert Hofstede conducted research at IBM that included an estimated 100,000 employees in 50 different countries. His research categorizes six different cultures models: Individualism vs. Collectivism, Power Distance, Short-termism vs. Long-termism, Masculinity vs. Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Indulgence vs. Restraint. This research has become internationally recognized and provides a standard for understanding cultural differences.

Hofstede’s model of Individualism vs. Collectivism examines the degree to which cultures value the performance of individuals or the collective efforts of groups. The United States scored the highest of any country in Individualism (Schermerhorn & Bachrach, 2018). Dorothy Vaughan provides an example of Collectivism at play. As the de facto leader of the African American calculators at NASA, she seemed to feel a sense of responsibility for her peers, and understood what was at stake for their futures and the future of African Americans in society. Vaughan noted that the engineers assigned to the IBM computers were having issues. She was also vigilant and found that her talented African American female coworkers were not getting promoted as quickly. She took it upon herself to teach herself FORTAN, the program that IBM was using at the time. The engineers discovered her ability, but she was the only one who was able to get the IBM running the calculations. This also led to her educating the other women calculators, securing their positions at NASA (Chernin & Melfi, 2006).

Hofstede’s Masculinity vs. Femininity, a somewhat unfortunately named category, is the degree to which a society values assertiveness and materialism versus feelings, relationships, and quality of life (Chernin & Melfi, 2006).

This method highlights stereotypical views between men and women. Al Harrison is a prime example of Hofstede’s masculinity. He is ultimately concerned with digging deeper into the mathematics and being hard on the workers to ensure the numbers were correct; he only wanted answers. Katherine Johnson was the top mathematician of the calculators in NASA and transferred to Harrison’s division. Katherine was subject to discrimination by having other male colleagues segregate and distance themselves from her. She was unable to share coffee with them, unable to work from proper calculations because her male counterpart redacted vital information, and she had to take her work with her to the bathroom because the only restroom for African American women was across campus. Harrison questions why she is never at her desk and Katherine challenges Harrison’s ignorance by stating all the wrongs that have occurred. This opens Harrison’s eyes to how she is being treated and helps him understand that quality of life does have an effect on the outcome of one’s work and productivity (Chernin & Melfi, 2006).