Intersectionality: Hidden Figures & Angela Davis

This essay examines the concept of intersectional feminism through a comparative analysis of the film 'Hidden Figures' and Angela Davis' book 'Women, Race & Class'. The essay analyzes how both sources demonstrate the overlapping experiences of oppression faced by women based on race, class, and gender. It highlights instances of discrimination against Black female mathematicians at NASA in the film and explores Davis' arguments about the historical failure of mainstream feminism to address the unique challenges faced by Black women. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of intersectional awareness in achieving true equality for all women.

Running head: ESSAY
Intersectional Feminism
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1ESSAY
The term intersectional feminism represents the diversity and inclusiveness of the
feminist movement. The main agenda of the feminist movement remains constant, but includes
the overlapping identities such as, class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and religion that
impact the way women experience oppression and discrimination. The film Hidden figure
released in 2016 and directed by Theodore Melfie highlight this topic I their film that will be
discussed and compared with “Women, Race and Class” by Angela Y. Davis holding similar
essence.
The story of the film portrays three characters; the historical figures of NASA, Katherine
Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson and their struggle in the organization. Several
injustices that were done on them were highlighted in the film along with highlighting their
characters as warm, strong and exceptionally joyful, hardworking, dancing, joking and laughing.
The audiences are shown repeatedly about their success that were appropriated and accepted by
all but rewarded by none. It also shows the instance when the mathematician character Paul
Stafford holds Katherine back from putting her name on their joint project though she play
crucial role in their success, or the denial of Dorothy’s title or the pay for the supervisor work
she performed (metro.co.uk 2017). Several similar incidents are highlighted in the film, even
representing the incidents of Vivian Mitchell who is a white woman, hyperware of her fragility
and novelty for their place in NASA. She had constantly refused to use her privilege for uplifting
the black women and give them their just rights and position. These intersectional
discriminations are show throughout the film that forced the audiences to confront the flaws in
their thinking instead of feeling detached. Both the sexist and racist characters abound, as the
characters faced these from not only white men, rather from the both sexes. These advantages
were taken from them on multiple occasions on these intersectional grounds and used in the

2ESSAY
white peoples’ benefits and privilege to obtain unfair career advantages. This shows the toxic
atmosphere that the characters faced where their importance is accepted by all, but when times
came to reward them, they showed negligence which will be a far decent term to represent the
cruelty they had to face (cherwell.org 2017).
Similarity can be found in Angela Davis’s work, “women, Race and Class” that focuses
on tracing suffering of the women in United States on the grounds of race, class, ethnicity,
religion and many more. The suppression is highlighted along with the efforts of women
protesting against it through the movements. Several aspects of the feminist struggles that
occurred throughout history for equality described in different chapters of the book. All the
aspects are connected by the author with a single string which is racism that interfered and
reduced the ability of the feminist movement. The white women refused to constantly consider
the black community in their movement and fight for equality. They couldn’t find equality
among themselves and fighting for the cause of equality is highly criticized by the author and
scholars over time. The author primarily focused on the black community, though freed from the
concept of slavery are still suffering from a more complex form of work. They were still
restricted to the works in domestic settings. Another major issue that has been highlighted in the
work is economic inequality which again lacks the unified protest against the cause. The goal of
feminism in United States always failed to acknowledge the racism as the failure of their protest
and how is facilitates to shape the experiences of the black women residing in the grounds of
United States. She often took example of the election for supporting her point, where the white
women took of the point racism that is of their superiority from the black women in convincing
the white men. The feminist movements themselves never considered the experience of the black

3ESSAY
women that can be an important resource in their protest and both parted themselves separate
form one another (Davis 2011).
In conclusion, it can be said that the racism, religion, ethnicity has always played
important role in the feminist protest throughout history. The activists have always asked for
equality in the society, but seems to always forget to include their “own kind”, that is the black
women in the states who is also a women and deserves the same rights. Intersection had always
been visible in both the presentation in the film Hidden Figures by Melfie and the book by Davis.
This intersectional feminist protest can be considered as the reason of every failure. The question
lies within as they cannot find equality among themselves as women, how can they seek equality
in the male dominated society.

4ESSAY
References
cherwell.org. 2017. inter-sectional feminism. [online] Available at:
http://cherwell.org/2017/03/30/intersectional-feminism-triumphs-in-hidden-figures/ [Accessed
28 Aug. 2017].
Davis, A.Y., 2011. Women, race, & class. Vintage.
metro.co.uk. 2017. Hidden figure. [online] Available at: http://metro.co.uk/2016/08/17/taraji-p-
hensons-hidden-figures-is-the-intersectional-feminist-movie-we-need-right-now-6071797/
[Accessed 28 Aug. 2017].