Inferences
In the spring of 1943, with World War II in full swing and many men off serving in the military, the country needed all the help it could get. Employers were beginning to hire women to do jobs that had once belonged only to men.
Why are employers hiring women for jobs that men use to do?
Employers are hiring women because there are no men to do the jobs because they are all fighting in the war.
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The NACA’s mission was important and unique: to help the United States develop the most powerful and efficient airplanes in the world. Airplanes moved military troops, tracked enemies, and launched bombs. World leaders felt that the country that ruled the skies would win the war.
NACA was working on making more powerful airplanes to help the US win the war.
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Dorothy studied hard and became valedictorian of her high school class. She earned a full scholarship to Wilberforce University, the country’s oldest private black college, located near Xenia, Ohio.
Dorothy was a good student and she went to college.
The newspaper ad caught the attention of many women. It read: “Women who are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and do jobs previously filled by men should call the Langley Laboratory.”
A few years earlier, an ad like this would have been unthinkable—most employers never would have considered a woman for a job that had always been performed by a man.
What does unthinkable mean?
Unthinkable means something that people do not think about
For the engineers, a plane was basically a complex physics experiment. Physics is the science of matter, energy, and motion. Physics meant math, and math meant mathematicians.
What is physics?
Physics is the science of matter, energy, and motion.
The applications were not supposed to consider race, but it wasn’t hard for employers to figure out which job candidates were black. African Americans did not have access to white colleges and universities, so black applicants came from black colleges.
How did employers figure out which candidates were black?
Employers knew which candidates were black because they came from black colleges.
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Before manufacturers built the airplanes, the designs were developed, tested, and refined at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. The engineers created wind tunnels to simulate, or imitate, different conditions a plane could encounter when flying. This helped the engineers to test airplane parts as well as whole aircraft, examining them for any problems.
Engineers tested planes at Langley to see if there were any problems.
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After graduation in 1929, Dorothy taught math and English at a black school in rural Tamms, Illinois. That year the Depression caused a collapse in cotton prices that hit the area so hard that the local school board closed Dorothy’s school, leaving no public education available for African-American students. Dorothy was forced to look for work again. She found a job teaching in Farmville, Virginia.
Dorothy became a teacher in Illinois. When the school closed she found another job teaching in Farmville Virgina.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt believed in the importance of air power, so two years earlier, in 1941, he had challenged the nation to increase its production of airplanes to fifty thousand units a year. At that time, the industry had manufactured only three thousand planes a year.
What does manufactured mean?
Manfactured means made
Hiring black mathematicians—that was something new. For the most part, the engineers welcomed extra hands, even if those hands were black. The Langley Laboratory was operating around the clock to test airplanes to be flown by American soldiers in the war: everyone had a job to do.
What does hands mean here?
Hands means people working.
The East Area Computers were all white; the West Area Computers were all black, except for the supervisor and her assistant, who were white women.
Why were the West Area Computer supervisor and her assistant white?
The West Area Computer supervision and assistant were white because black people usually were not allowed to have positions of power.
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Female mathematicians had been on the job at Langley since 1935. And it didn’t take long for the women to show that they were just as good or even better at computing than many of the male engineers. But few of the women were granted the title “mathematician,” which would have put them on equal footing with some male employees.
Women worked at Langley starting in 1935 and they were just as good as men at math, but they didn't get paid as much.
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In the first week of May 1943, the Norfolk Journal and Guide published an article that caught Dorothy’s eye. “Paving the Way for Women Engineers,” read the headline. The accompanying photo showed eleven well-dressed African American women in front of Hampton Institute’s Bemis Laboratory. Maybe there were opportunities for African-American women who loved numbers. Dorothy decided to fill out an application.
Dorothy saw a newspaper article and applied for a job to be an engineer.
By 1943, the American aircraft industry was the largest, and most productive in the world, making three times more planes than the Germans, who were fighting on the other side of the war.
What does productive mean?
Productive means able to make a lot of something
The laundry workers existed at the bottom of the war’s great pyramid of employees. They earned forty cents an hour—among the lowest wages of all war workers— but for women with few employment options, even that modest sum felt like a windfall.
What does windfall mean?
Windfall means good luck.
Hiring black mathematicians—that was something new. For the most part, the engineers welcomed extra hands, even if those hands were black. The Langley Laboratory was operating around the clock to test airplanes to be flown by American soldiers in the war: everyone had a job to do.
Why do you think the engineers didn't care that the mathematicians were black?
The mathematicians didn't care that mathematicians were black because there was so much to do and they were just happy to have help.
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Once hired, the black mathematicians were assigned to a separate work space in the Warehouse Building on the west side of the Langley campus. The East Area Computers were all white; the West Area Computers were all black, except for the supervisor and her assistant, who were white women.
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The job at the aeronautical laboratory was something entirely new, something so unusual it hadn’t been dreamed of yet. It was an opportunity that had the potential to change the future of Dorothy’s family. Even if the war ended in six months or a year, earning a much higher salary for that brief time could help her save money for her children’s education.
If Dorothy got the job at the laboratory she could save money for her kids' school.
At Langley, the female mathematicians were called “computers.” They did the computations to turn the results of the raw data gathered by the engineers into a more useful form. Today we think of computers as machines, but in the 1940s, a computer was just someone whose job it was to do computations, a flesh-and-blood woman who was very good with numbers.
What is a computer?
A computer is a woman that is good at math.
Dorothy looked for work as a teacher, the most stable career at the time for black women with a college degree.
What is a career?
A career is a job
Virginia’s white public school teachers earned some of the lowest salaries in the United States, and black teachers in Virginia earned 50 percent less than that.
Why did black teachers earn less than white teachers?
Black teachers earned less than white people because there was a lot of discrimation and schools were segregated.
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Hampton, Virginia, where the Langley campus was located, was very much a southern town. State law and Virginia custom meant that African Americans did not ride the same buses or eat in the same cafeterias or use the same bathrooms as whites.
In Hampton, black people were not allowed to go to the same places or use the same bathrooms as white people.
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The application for the laboratory asked for Dorothy’s work history, references, schools attended, languages spoken. One question asked: “How soon could you be ready to start work?”
She filled in the blank: 48 hours.
If she got the job, she could be ready to go in forty-eight hours. Because a chance like that might never come around again.
Dorothy filled out the application for the laboratory job and she said she could start work in 48 hours
n 1943, it was difficult for the Langley Laboratory to find as many qualified women as they needed. A recruiter from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics visited colleges in search of young women with analytical or mathematical skills.
What is a recruiter?
A recruiter is someone who tries to find someone to do a job.
Even if the war ended in six months or a year, earning a much higher salary for that brief time could help her save money for her children’s education.
What is a salary?
Salary is how much money you make at a job.