Sexual Harassment Is Common In Scientific Fieldwork

sciencehabit writes: Universities and other workplaces have codes of conduct guarding against sexual harassment. But what about the more casual venue of scientific fieldwork—which is also a workplace? A new survey finds that sexual harassment and assaults occur frequently in the field, with little consequence for the perpetrators or explicit prohibitions against such conduct. The study reveals that the primary targets were young women who were harassed, assaulted, and even raped by men who were usually senior to them in rank, although men also reported harassment.

Comments

Re:Some people are jerks

[XanC]

It's just stupid to blame a lack of policy for somebody doing something illegal. The absence of a policy in no way means the entity endorses an activity.

Re:Such harassment

[bobbied]

Not to mention that it cheapens the really serious offenses like rape and repeated harassment when they are grouped in with telling a suggestive joke once or forwarding a suggestive E-mail.

Offending someone is one thing (and should be avoided) but doing actual harm is quite another. Let's not group them together.