'No one had ever seen a woman in Mission Control before.'
Another question Northcutt gets asked frequently today is how her experience working on the Apollo program impacted her life.
At that time, there weren't books or conferences on sexism and gender discrimination, Northcutt says, but she learned important lessons first hand. One is to beware of sex-role stereotyping. "I was crossing that invisible line between being a computress and being an engineer," she said."Women are expected to take instructions and provide answers."
But Northcutt knew leaving while the rest of the team kept working would prevent her from being seen as an equal, and would keep her from knowing what was going on.
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