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Sexual Harassment Is Common In Scientific Fieldwork

Posted by Soulskill on from the communities-that-needs-fixing dept.

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.

9 of 362 comments (clear)

  1. Such harassment by WarSpiteX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "jokes about physical beauty and cognitive sex differences"

    It's so hard to take these reports seriously when they include the most trifling transgressions along with the truly egregious ones.

    http://www.hackcanada.com/canadian/zines/spacemoose/polisci.gif

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    I'm a little segfault, short and stout.
    1. Re:Such harassment by Iamthecheese · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The point is, they're not the same, shouldn't be treated the same, and lumping them together makes the data less useful. The only benefit to lumping them together is that it makes the problem look worse than it is. Publishing less useful data for political points? Evil.

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      If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
  2. Re:Some people are jerks by stephanruby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    Do we really need explicit prohibitions against sexual harassment and sexual assaults for field work? What about murder or violent assaults? Do we need to explicitly prohibit those as well? Or are those implicitly permitted because they're not mentioned somewhere in a field manual?

  3. Re:Newsflash! by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fuck you, mate. I've worked with women (and in some cases under female bosses) for my entire working life. I've always been able to restrain myself from sexual humor, from making advances or indeed, from any kind of sexual behavior. I was raised to be a gentleman, and more to the point, I believed from the beginning of my working life that "coming on" to coworkers is a recipe for workplace malfunction.

    Or, perhaps, because you don't have the wits to overcome your hormones, I could simply say "Grow the fuck up and quit believing permanent adolescent behavior is natural."

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    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  4. Re:Some people are jerks by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The policy manual where I work spells out all kinds of things; like not doing illegal things on company computers, not stealing, not sexually harassing or bullying people. What the hell is your problem with that? The whole point of policies, whether they cover unwanted illegal activities or unwanted and yet legal activities, is to make clear the organization's priorities and desires for the workplace.

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    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  5. Boobies by Prien715 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Scientist A: Show me pictures of your boobies!
    Scientist B: They're really big

    My hobby: Making clean jokes.

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    -- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
  6. I don't get it by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 5, Insightful
    My wife was the victim of sexual harassment - closer to assault.

    what she did was go after the guy full bore, no holds barred, and not one thing made not perfectly clear.. Reported it to the employer, letting him know that he (the employer)had a choice. Do something about it before the day was over, or face the legal consequences of both himself and the asswipe being served the next morning. She outlined exactly what she was going to do. Which included sexual assault charges, and charges against the employer for having such a person in their employ., with a whole lot of publicity.

    Her harasser got to not only go through a long list of reparations and counseling, he ended up being her employee.

    This was in the home construction industry which if no one has noticed, is a whole lot less amenable to sexual equality that a university environment.

    Which is all to say that if there is harassment, if there is assault. Then fucking do something about it. Otherwise, it's just an anecdote. This crap of just saying men are pigs, look what they do - is grade A bullshit. Press charges, dammit!

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    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  7. Fieldwork in particular? by Krishnoid · · Score: 5, Funny

    SKINNER: Six hours, nineteen minutes, right ascension, fourteen degrees, twenty-two minutes declination... no sighting.

    BART: Mm-hm.

    SKINNER: Six hours, nineteen minutes, right ascension, fourteen degrees, twenty-three minutes declination... no sighting.

    BART: Mm-hm.

    ...

    SKINNER: (excitedly) Six hours, nineteen minutes, right ascension, fourteen degrees, fifty-eight minutes declination! ...no sighting. Did you get that one Bart?

    BART: Hell no.

    I can't imagine why scientific fieldwork in particular could provide an environment that promotes inappropriate behavior.

  8. Re:Some people are jerks by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not all Sexual harassment isn't illegal.

    I'm not sure if what you hadn't stated isn't what you didn't think you couldn't have meant.