Historical Situation
Katherine was born into a black home and grew up in a time where Jim Crow laws and segregation was a natural practice in the nation. At the same time, women weren't treated with respect and often deemed as inferior to men.
For example, Johnson’s job was to prepare the equations and charts for aerospace work. But she wasn’t allowed inside the room where any of it was discussed. She asked why she wasn't allowed in the room and her male colleagues told her that girls don't go to the meetings. Eventually, Johnson got her justice because Johnson kept asking about the meetings. Eventually the engineers relented, tired of saying no over and over again. She made it into the room, and well beyond that. There had been cases where NASA prohibited black people from using the same bathroom as white people which served as a problem for Johnson whenever she needed to go to the bathroom and then resume working. She had to search for a bathroom and took long trips which got on the nerves of her male colleagues, thinking she was skipping on work. Eventually, NASA took down the "colored" sign for the bathrooms doing Johnson a great justice.