Report: Half of women in science, academia experience harassment
Science has a sexual harassment problem. From the most polished ivory tower to the local community college, harassment pervades lecture halls and laboratories, observatories and offices, teaching hospitals and Antarctic field sites. And it takes an economic and emotional toll on female researchers and stifles their scientific contributions, according to a sweeping new study released Tuesday.
The solution will require a “systemwide change to the culture and climate in higher education,” the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine conclude.
The study draws on decades of research and dozens of interviews with women who were targets of harassment. Though female researchers have talked about the problem for years, some say the findings from one of science’s most prestigious institutions come at a critical juncture: As long- rumored allegations involving high- profile scientists finally come to light and organizations rethink their own rules for harassment, the 300- page report could help push substantive change.
“It’s a spectacular and encyclopedic piece of research and writing, and will no doubt serve as the touchstone for research, policy and advocacy in this area for years to come,” said Heidi Lockwood, a professor of philosophy at Southern Connecticut State University and an advocate for victims of sexual harassment in academia.
Yet among the institutions under fire are the National Academies themselves, criticized for maintaining members who have been found guilty of misconduct by the institutions where they work.
BethAnn McLaughlin, an assistant professor of neurology at Vanderbilt University, last month launched a petition urging the academies to revoke the membership of anyone found guilty of harassment, assault or retaliation. She voiced little faith that National Academy of Sciences president Marcia McNutt will act on the recommendations.
“For McNutt not to have cleaned house is offensive to me as a woman,” Ms. McLaughlin said. “And it certainly undermines the credibility of the National Academy to implement meaningful change.”
Science’s current # MeToo moment began well before that term ever trended on Twitter. In October 2015, Buzzfeed reported the results of a Title IX investigation at the University of California at Berkeley: The school’s star astronomy professor, Geoff Marcy, had repeatedly violated campus sexual harassment policies but was never sanctioned. Amid the ensuing outcry, the school concluded that Mr. Marcy had been “inadequately disciplined.” He ultimately resigned; still a member of the National Academy of Sciences, he did not respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment.
In the wake of that scandal, similar revelations led to the firing or resignation of prominent figures in fields including astrophysics, anthropology, geology and physics.
The findings released Tuesday are both broad and deep. Georgia State University researcher Kevin Swartout compiled data from surveys at the University of Texas and Pennsylvania State University school systems. Those represented more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, as well as women faculty. Between 20 percent and 50 percent of women students in science, engineering and medicine, and more than 50 percent of faculty, said they’d experienced harassment.
LGBTQ women and women of color were more likely than their straight, white counterparts to have been harassed, and women of color were more likely to report feeling unsafe because of their gender.
A series of 40 interviews, with women from multiple fields, institutions and stages of their career, delved deeper into these episodes. About half of the women detailed physical abuse but far more prevalent were sexist remarks, jokes and inappropriate comments. One assistant professor of engineering described the “mind games” of other colleagues, meant to demean women at an intellectual level.
The study notes that science’s strict hierarchies and “star culture” make institutions less likely to hold perpetrators accountable. It says targets of harassment rarely formally report their experience, often because they ( correctly) perceive that they might experience retaliation. And anti- harassment training, the report says, has not been proven to be effective.
The findings help explain how harassment can push women out of science or create an environment so hostile that their work suffers.
The report has 14 major recommendations for combating the problem at academic institutions, scientific societies and federal agencies. They include improving transparency in the investigation and reporting process, providing better support to individuals targeted and updating ethics codes to treat harassment with the same scrutiny as plagiarism, falsification of data and other forms of scientific misconduct.