The Woman Who Made GPS Possible (And Was Almost Written Out of History)
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If you have ever used your phone to get somewhere…
If you have ever dropped a pin…
If you have ever trusted that calm robot lady voice telling you to turn left…
You owe part of that moment to a woman you were probably never taught about.
This week on Bitchstory, we’re talking about Dr. Gladys West — mathematician, programmer, data pioneer, and one of the foundational minds behind the technology that became GPS.
And like so many women in science — especially Black women — she spent decades doing world-changing work quietly, precisely, and without fanfare… while history mostly talked about the men.
Let’s fix that.
Gladys West was born in rural Virginia in 1930.Her parents worked in tobacco fields. Education wasn’t just encouraged — it was the exit strategy.
She graduated as valedictorian of her high school class, earned a scholarship, and studied mathematics. Not because it was trendy. Not because it was easy. Because she was good at it… and because she understood that numbers could open doors that the world tried to close.
She eventually joined the U.S. Navy’s research division at Dahlgren — one of only a handful of women, and even fewer Black women, working in high-level computational science at the time.
Here’s the part that makes my feminist rage and awe activate simultaneously:
Dr. West helped create the mathematical models that mapped the exact shape of the Earth.
Not a cute globe.
Not a “close enough” oval.
The actual irregular, lumpy, gravitationally weird planet we live on.
Why does that matter?
Because GPS doesn’t work unless you know precisely where satellites are in relation to the real shape of Earth — not the textbook version.
She programmed early supercomputers.
She processed massive satellite datasets.
She refined geoid models — basically the math that lets satellites and receivers agree on where “here” actually is.
No drama.
No TED Talks.
Just decades of brilliant, exacting work.
For most of her career, the public had no idea who she was. She wasn’t chasing recognition. She was doing the work. The real work. The kind that infrastructure is built on.
It wasn’t until much later in life — after retirement — that people started realizing:
Oh.
Ohhhhh.
She’s one of the reasons GPS exists.
She was eventually inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame. She earned a PhD in her 70s. Because of course she did.
Dr. Gladys West is a perfect example of something we talk about all the time:
History doesn’t just forget women accidentally.
It’s structured to center visibility, ego, and credit — and women (especially women of color) were often locked out of all three.
Meanwhile, they were literally building the systems the world runs on.
She didn’t just “contribute” - she helped build the mathematical backbone of modern navigation.You are walking around inside a world she helped calculate.
Because we are still living in a moment where:
• Women’s labor is called “support” instead of “foundational”
• Black women’s genius is expected but not always credited
• Quiet brilliance gets overshadowed by loud mediocrity
Dr. West reminds us that legacy doesn’t require permission.
Impact doesn’t require applause.
And sometimes the most powerful people in history are the ones who were too busy changing the world to brand themselves while doing it.
Dr. Gladys Brown West
10/27/1930 - 1/17/2026