Report: Sexual harassment a threat to female scientists

WASHINGTON — Sexual harassment plagues academic science, and colleges and universities that train scientists need a culture change so women won’t be bullied out of the field, according to a new report.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine said Tuesday in recommendations aimed at U.S. institutions of higher education and groups that fund them that it’s time to treat sexual harassment as seriously as research misconduct, .

Universities are recruiting more women to science-related fields, but the report makes clear that pervasive sexual harassment puts those gains at risk.

“If we are losing talent in science, engineering and medicine, then that is … detrimental to … the world,” Wellesley College President Paula Johnson, who co-chaired the report, said in an interview.

The report cited a University of Texas survey that found about 20 percent of female science students, more than a quarter of female engineering students and more than 40 percent of female medical students said they had experienced sexual harassment. In a similar survey in Pennsylvania, half of female medical students reported such harassment.