Mary is able to persuade a judge to let her take night classes at an all-white school. She is the only woman, especially a black woman, to attend an all-white male engineering class. She experiences instant judgment from the men when she goes to sit for class. This scene shows how odd it was at that time for a black woman to want to receive an education, especially in such an intellectually demanding job like aerospace engineering.

During a pentagon meeting for the launch, Catherine requests to attend in order to be updated on the changes of the project. She is rejected many times since the room is only for men in high positions and where "there is no protocol for women to attend these meetings". After much persuasion, Catherine is allowed to only watch the meeting, which makes her the only woman to enter the board room.

Dorothy is not only the first person to figure out how to use the computing machine, but she is the first woman. Dorothy works overtime to learn the technology behind the machines and proves herself to the men of the department that she too is capable of working wonders.