Women’s History Month 2021
“The most damaging phrase in the English language is: ‘It’s always been done that way.’” – Admiral Grace Hooper
Did you know that only 30% of women pursue a degree in a STEM field? At Think Together, we believe that every student has big dreams and is capable of accomplishing anything they set their mind to. In our programs, all students receive academic support but even more importantly are exposed to expanded learning opportunities such as coding and robotics. Join us this month as we celebrate women in STEM and be inspired to work hard to achieve your goals.
Katherine and her colleagues, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson did the calculations that guided NASA’s 1962 Friendship 7 Mission, the first to send an American, to orbit Earth. The astronaut, John Herschel Glenn Jr., famously trusted Katherine and her team to confirm the ground-breaking calculations that contributed to the safe and successful mission.
Katherine, Dorothy and Mary’s story about being Black female mathematicians at NASA during the space race was chronicled in the non-fiction book and subsequent movie Hidden Figures.
On February 20, 2021, the missions’ 59th anniversary, the S.S. Katherine Johnson launched from a NASA facility in Virginia to commemorate her achievements in math, science and space.
- Read about the S.S. Katherine Johnson supply mission
- Katherine Johnson’s biography
- Read Hidden Figures
- Watch Hidden Figures (PG)
Joan Clarke was the only woman to work in the nerve center of the quest to crack German Enigma ciphers during World War II alongside Alan Turing. The amount of secrecy around what happened at Bletchley Park leaves the full extent of Clarke’s achievements unknown. She studied mathematics at Cambridge but was denied a full degree because Cambridge did not award degrees to women at that time.
- Joan Clarke’s Biography
- Watch the Imitation Game (PG-13)
Lise Meitner has been called the “Mother of Nuclear Power,” although few are aware of her contributions to the field. This science maven earned a doctorate degree in 1906 after studying physics at the University of Vienna.
She later teamed up with chemist Otto Hahn. The most notable of the duo’s joint discoveries includes nuclear fission, for which Hahn was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1944. Meitner was not recognized for her role in this finding, leading many to cite that year’s prestigious honor “The Nobel Mistake.”
Grace Hopper is best known as the “Queen of Code.” Military leader, mathematician and computer programmer, she graduated from Vassar College in 1928 and earned a master’s and doctorate in mathematics from Yale in 1930 and 1934, respectively.
Hopper used her programming skills while serving her country in the Navy during World War II. There, she helped build Mark I, one of the world’s earliest computers. After the war, she continued her work at Harvard on Mark II and Mark III. She was the oldest serving officer in the U.S. armed forces when she retired from the Navy in 1986.
Sources:
- http://www.css.edu/the-sentinel-blog/historical-women-in-stem.html
- https://www.internationalwomensday.com/Activity/7213/13-Women-in-STEM-Who-Changed-the-World
- https://www.un.org/en/observances/women-and-girls-in-science-day