Today, on Apollo 11 mission’s 50th anniversary, I read an article about the only woman in the firing room during the launch. Her name is JoAnn Morgan. She was a 28 years old instrumentation controller and the best in her field.
There is a picture of the firing room with at least 50 men with short hair, white shirts and black ties. And in the middle of that huge group is a lone woman. It’s an incredible sight. JoAnn speaks about her experience working at NASA during the ‘60s. She speaks about receiving obscene phone calls and having to walk to another building to use the restroom because there were no ladies’ restrooms in the building where she worked. It is hard to imagine this world even though it was only 50 years ago.
We have come a long way, however there are still many places where women are few and far in between. In my profession as an Information Technology executive, it is still a very male dominated world. I could relate to JoAnn in some ways. Some of her colleagues described her as having moxie. It takes moxie to be the only woman allowed in a firing room of the biggest mission of the century! It takes moxie also to be the only woman in a board meeting and stand up to a dozen male executives or bullied by a man threatened by a woman in position of authority. Not only was I the only woman in these situations but I was young and by some people’s standards, a foreigner.
What I liked about JoAnn Morgan and relate to as well, is her belief in herself as being no different than any man. She kept a strong focus on her job and didn’t get distracted by the challenges she had to face as a woman. I’m sure there are lots of women from all walks of life who have their own stories about being questioned because of their gender. We all have the same M.O. We stay focused and get through. As long as there are barriers facing us, there will be Hidden Figures who move mountains despite being told they are weak, that they don’t belong or are subjected to indignities.