Survey: Sexual Assult of Scientific Trainees

[Nova Andromeda]

PLOS ONE Journal Link

Survey of Academic Field Experiences (SAFE): Trainees Report Harassment and Assault

Abstract

Little is known about the climate of the scientific fieldwork setting as it relates to gendered experiences, sexual harassment, and sexual assault. We conducted an internet-based survey of field scientists (N = 666) to characterize these experiences. Codes of conduct and sexual harassment policies were not regularly encountered by respondents, while harassment and assault were commonly experienced by respondents during trainee career stages. Women trainees were the primary targets; their perpetrators were predominantly senior to them professionally within the research team. Male trainees were more often targeted by their peers at the research site. Few respondents were aware of mechanisms to report incidents; most who did report were unsatisfied with the outcome. These findings suggest that policies emphasizing safety, inclusivity, and collegiality have the potential to improve field experiences of a diversity of researchers, especially during early career stages. These include better awareness of mechanisms for direct and oblique reporting of harassment and assault and, the implementation of productive response mechanisms when such behaviors are reported. Principal investigators are particularly well positioned to influence workplace culture at their field sites.

Citation: Clancy KBH, Nelson RG, Rutherford JN, Hinde K (2014) Survey of Academic Field Experiences (SAFE): Trainees Report Harassment and Assault. PLoS ONE 9(7): e102172. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102172

[Simon_Jester]

The article title is cut off; you may want to come up with a shorter one. Right now it asserts that sexual assault of scientific trainees is a large woman, technically.

So roughly half the men and roughly 70% of the women "experienced comments;" I'm having trouble downloading the survey file so I'm not sure what that means but I can feel in the blanks. The alarming part is of course the part where roughly one quarter of women involved what I infer is unwelcome sexual contact, and there are obviously two separate issues that need to be resolved there- raising awareness of the means for reporting such harassment AND giving it a more satisfying outcome for the women involved.

[Lagmonster]

The only thing surprising about this is how many people actually refer to it as 'sexual assault' as opposed to 'It happens'. There are men - and they know who they are - who will openly make a pass at anything with legs because they are unflinchingly aware that their worth to their field or department far exceeds the cost of a quiet settlement.

[Dr. Trainwreck]

Yeah, people are finally deciding to say out loud "hey, this shit ain't cool".

[Raw Shark]

One of the eight men who experienced physical contact appears to have reported the physical contact without being aware of the mechanism to report contact. I've got to wonder what happened there: Crazy public drama? Bathroom graffiti?

[Simon_Jester]

Depending on how the survey question was phrased it may have been "were you previously aware of the mechanism, before you got sexually harassed and wanted to tell people?"

[Darmalus]

I'm kinda curious as to why the number of male respondents was so low, and why men were so rarely harassed by superiors. My only guess is that the ranks of superiors is still mostly male and heterosexual, making them non-targets.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I'm not sure I trust the exact results, just because survey data is notorious for being heavily skewed by a variety of factors. Without a number of independent surveys confirming the results, I wouldn't quote them as gospel.

That said, broadly speaking I wouldn't be surprised if it was true. I mean, first of all this is going to be a problem in any professional field to some degree. Second of all, from my personal experience in research, it is a highly sexually charged field to begin with. I've never personally witnessed or seen evidence of actual harassment, but the majority of field researchers I know have had sexual experiences with colleagues (especially at conferences, actually). It is pretty common when you realize you have lots of young principal investigators (in the 28-35 age range) just out of their PhD programs working closely with 18-22 year old girls who happen to share all of their interests.