Macie "Bobby" Roberts is a former supervisor at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...

(JPL). She was the supervisor for a group of women nicknamed "computers" during the 1960s. Roberts paved the way for the next generation of female supervisors and computers. The team that she led had their hands on almost every project at NASA before the development of physical computers.

Early working life

Prior to working at JPL, Roberts worked as an auditor for the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...

(IRS).

Career

As JPL expanded from rocket technology to missile technology the lab's director,

Frank Malina Frank Joseph Malina (October 2, 1912 — November 9, 1981) was an American aeronautical engineer and painter, known for his pioneering work in early rocketry. Early life Malina was born in Brenham, Texas. His father came from Moravia. Frank's ...

promoted long time computer Macie Roberts to supervisor of the expanding division of female computers. Macie "Bobby" Roberts was the original supervisor of the human computers at NASA, later dubbed the rocket women. She believed that it would be too difficult to work with men, so she created a culture of all women that spanned much longer than her time at JPL. Roberts's job was not limited to just calculations, she hired and trained the new employees for over thirty years after being promoted. Her successor, Helen Ling, continued on the tradition of only hiring women. The women on Robert's team performed trajectory calculations for all space flights before the advent of the desktop computer. One of the techniques that Roberts employed to find women for the job was to list the job as "not requiring a degree." This was code meant for women to know that the job was open to all women.

Legacy

Her legacy was continued on by the supervisors that followed her. Many women that were just as smart as male engineers could not find work, but they were hired on to be rocket women at JPL. These women formed a sisterhood that has lived on throughout the lifetime of NASA.

Famous quotes

"You have to look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, and work like a dog."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Macie Human computers Living people NASA people Year of birth missing (living people)