DEI hires

AProudLefty said:
And then one day, at a family function in the 1950s, a relative mentioned to Johnson that the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the predecessor to NASA, was hiring. They were specifically looking for African American females to work as “computers” in what was then their Guidance and Navigation Department.

www.nasa.gov

Katherine Johnson: A Lifetime of STEM - NASA

Katherine Johnson loved to count. “I counted everything. I counted the steps to the road, the steps up to church, the number of dishes and silverware I washed
www.nasa.gov www.nasa.gov
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This part was very interesting to me:

As Johnson worked on the problems, she would ask questions. She didn’t want to just do the work — she wanted to know the “hows” and the “whys” and then the “why nots.” None of the other women had ever asked questions before, but by asking questions, Johnson began to stand out. She was told that women didn’t participate in the briefings or attend meetings; she asked if there were a law against it. The answer, of course, was no, and so Johnson began to attend briefings. NACA was just beginning its work on space. Space itself may be perceived as a series of plane surfaces, and as Johnson became known for her training in geometry, she began to work with the team more and more. Eventually, she became known as a leader, and the men increasingly relied on her. She remembered quite clearly her experience at the time. “The women did what they were told to do,” she explained. “They didn’t ask questions or take the task any further. I asked questions; I wanted to know why. They got used to me asking questions and being the only woman there.” It was this inquisitive nature that made her a valuable resource to the team and the only woman at the time to ever be pulled from the computing pool to work on other programs. Then in 1962, President John F. Kennedy charged the country to send a man to the Moon. Johnson became part of the team, and she began to work on calculating the trajectory for America’s first space trip with Alan Shepherd’s 1961 mission, an early step toward a Moon landing. She went on to do the calculations for the first actual Moon landing in 1969.
 
Dutch Uncle said:
This part was very interesting to me:

As Johnson worked on the problems, she would ask questions. She didn’t want to just do the work — she wanted to know the “hows” and the “whys” and then the “why nots.” None of the other women had ever asked questions before, but by asking questions, Johnson began to stand out. She was told that women didn’t participate in the briefings or attend meetings; she asked if there were a law against it. The answer, of course, was no, and so Johnson began to attend briefings. NACA was just beginning its work on space. Space itself may be perceived as a series of plane surfaces, and as Johnson became known for her training in geometry, she began to work with the team more and more. Eventually, she became known as a leader, and the men increasingly relied on her. She remembered quite clearly her experience at the time. “The women did what they were told to do,” she explained. “They didn’t ask questions or take the task any further. I asked questions; I wanted to know why. They got used to me asking questions and being the only woman there.” It was this inquisitive nature that made her a valuable resource to the team and the only woman at the time to ever be pulled from the computing pool to work on other programs. Then in 1962, President John F. Kennedy charged the country to send a man to the Moon. Johnson became part of the team, and she began to work on calculating the trajectory for America’s first space trip with Alan Shepherd’s 1961 mission, an early step toward a Moon landing. She went on to do the calculations for the first actual Moon landing in 1969.
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AI Overview
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President John F. Kennedy (JFK) supported legislation and actions to promote fair employment practices and end discrimination in hiring.

Early DEI. :dunno:
 
Yakuda said:
Oh you mean that math ladies who had actual competence?
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The job calculator used to exist. Calculators did mathematical operations and calculations for engineers using slide rules and such before the advent of modern electronic / scientific calculators and computers. Those made the job obsolete. Calculators, as a job, could be found in most areas of industry and science where lots of math was involved.

Basically, they were the human equivalent of a scientific calculator. They didn't design the algorithms, or formulate the equations, all they did was solve the math equations they were given.
 
T. A. Gardner said:
The job calculator used to exist. Calculators did mathematical operations and calculations for engineers using slide rules and such before the advent of modern electronic / scientific calculators and computers. Those made the job obsolete. Calculators, as a job, could be found in most areas of industry and science where lots of math was involved.
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Translation: Black women were useless in the Space Race.
 
T. A. Gardner said:
The job calculator used to exist. Calculators did mathematical operations and calculations for engineers using slide rules and such before the advent of modern electronic / scientific calculators and computers. Those made the job obsolete. Calculators, as a job, could be found in most areas of industry and science where lots of math was involved.
Click to expand...
How does that contradict with the fact that they sent men into space?
 
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