We needed to be assertive as women in those days - assertive and

The words of Katherine Johnson — “We needed to be assertive as women in those days — assertive and aggressive — and the degree to which we had to be that way depended on where you were. I had to be.” — shine like the testimony of one who carved a path through walls of silence. They are not the idle musings of a bystander, but the lived truth of a pioneer whose courage helped lift humanity beyond the bounds of Earth itself. In these words, Johnson, the brilliant mathematician of NASA, reminds us that for women to be heard in hostile halls, they had to wield voices sharper than steel.

The meaning is weighty and enduring. To be assertive is to stand firm when the world commands silence. To be aggressive is to claim space where none has been offered. Johnson speaks of an age when women, and especially women of color, were often dismissed, doubted, or ignored. In such a world, gentleness was not enough. Only by stepping forward with strength, sometimes against custom and against fear, could they seize the dignity and recognition that was rightfully theirs.

Her own story is the living embodiment of these words. As one of the “Hidden Figures” who performed the calculations that guided the Mercury and Apollo missions, Katherine Johnson faced rooms filled with white men who doubted her place there. Yet she refused to yield. When barred from meetings, she demanded entry. When overlooked, she pressed forward with her work, proving through brilliance and perseverance that her voice could not be silenced. Her assertiveness not only won respect but also shaped the very course of space exploration.

History shows that she was not alone. From Marie Curie, who defied the disbelief of male scientists, to Rosa Parks, whose quiet refusal became an act of thunder, women across generations have been forced to raise their voices louder than the winds of prejudice. Their strength was not born of desire, but of necessity. They knew, as Johnson knew, that progress is never gifted; it is seized.

Let this lesson echo into the future: do not fear being assertive or aggressive when justice demands it. For the chains of history are not broken by silence, but by voices that rise and refuse to be ignored. Katherine Johnson’s words, forged in the crucible of struggle, teach us that sometimes survival requires not meekness, but might. And in that might, the seeds of equality are sown, blooming for generations yet to come.