Sexual Harassment Under the Microscope
Why we can’t keep expecting female role models to fix STEM’s representation problem
Calls to increase the representation of women and girls in STEM are far from novel. For years we’ve been bombarded with messaging about the gender gap - both within the uptake of girls studying STEM subjects and progression in the workplace. This gap is narrowing, thanks to campaigns such as Women in STEM and days like International Women and Girls in Science Day that we celebrate today. However, we have to make sure that the work that’s being done to rectify representation of women and marginalised genders in STEM is tackling all of the issues that serve as barriers to that participation. This work, therefore, must include action to address the cultures that lead to sexual harassment and violence in these areas. When a working, and studying, environment does not feel accessible and safe, is it any wonder women and girls seek more inclusive environments to carve out careers in?
According to a meta-analysis, academia is thought to have the highest rate of sexual harassment in any profession outside of the military. There hadn’t been much investigation into these experiences within STEM until 2018, when the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) produced a report on the extent of sexual harassment across STEM. The stats are horrific but unfortunately not surprising to any woman who has experience in the field. Nearly 50% of women in science, 58% of women in academia and 43% of female STEM graduates report experiencing sexual harassment. Unsurprisingly, the report acknowledges that there has been limited (if any) disaggregation of data into race, sexuality and gender identity, or socioeconomic background. However, in line with wider statistics of sexual harassment it can be confidently assumed that these experiences are more common among women of colour, disabled women and nonbinary people in STEM - to name but a few intersections. Despite the importance of this information, hearing it is hardly encouraging to aspiring scientists.
The fact that more than a third of women in STEM have experienced harassment before they even enter the workplace is clear evidence that this is a deep rooted issue, present in all STEM environments, and perhaps perpetuated by the male-dominated positions of power in research and academia which many students come into contact with from early on in their degrees. I'm sure I speak on behalf of many other young women studying STEM degrees when I say that I feel a measurable difference in comfort when I enter a tutorial or lab that is run by a female academic, not necessarily because I think any male academic would put me or my peers in any danger but because there is always that extra layer of care that we are taught to take when in an enclosed environment with men, particularly those in positions of power. Imagine if we could use that brain power for other things like, I don't know, science. If the environment were more balanced there wouldn't be as many of these situations and a lot of people would feel more comfortable entering the field as a whole. This is one of the many reasons it's so important to continue to narrow the gap.
On several occasions the media has turned a spotlight on the cultures of sexual violence and discrimination present in STEM. In 2015 the Nobel laureate Tim Hunt resigned from his position as a Professor at UCL after facing backlash over comments made at a conference, stating that his ‘trouble with girls’ and reasoning for wanting single-sex labs was that women are ‘distractingly sexy’ and ‘when you criticise them, they cry’. One response to these comments was the #DistractinglySexy trend on Twitter that saw thousands of women posting photos of themselves in protective clothing and with lab equipment. They were demonstrating that whatever we wear, we will be criticised for ‘distracting’ grown men who should know better. This sequence of events allowed other well-renowned men, in and out of the industry, such as Richard Dawkins, Brian Cox and Boris Johnson to show their support for Tim Hunt (and their chauvinism) by claiming that he had been victim to some sort of unfounded feminist outrage that put pressure on the university to call for his resignation. The fact that the STEM environment allowed these men to feel comfortable openly supporting Hunt is testament to how much work needed, and still needs, to be done.
Just this year, there was another trending hashtag of a similar nature. #MedBikini started when a paper entitled ‘Prevalence of unprofessional social media content among young vascular surgeons’ was published. This paper labelled photos of surgeons in bikinis ‘unprofessional’ and ‘provocative’, deeming that they could have a negative impact on how patients view their doctors. Besides the fact that the subjects had not given their permission to be investigated (the three male researchers used fake accounts to follow them on social media), the criteria for content to be labelled unprofessional appeared to be aimed towards women. How owning, or wearing, a bikini could possibly affect anyone’s ability to perform vascular surgery was not made clear. Many medical professionals (of all genders) then took to social media to post pictures of themselves in swimwear under the hashtag #MedBikini, calling out the blatant misogyny and dehumanisation of female surgeons that pervaded the paper. The sexualisation of women who are simply EXISTING on holiday continues the victim blaming cycle that sees victims held responsible for violence they experience. The journal that published the article later apologised and retracted it. Perhaps if the editorial board of the journal was more diverse someone may have had the foresight to see that the study itself was more unprofessional than any holiday photo.
Alongside other forms of discrimination, such as pay gaps and imbalances in hiring and promotions, the existence of a culture that perpetuates and normalises harassment of women and marginalised genders in STEM understandably causes women to be put off from entering the field. If women going into STEM have expectations of harassment and reduced recognition for their work, little remains to incentivise more to enter that space. Why should I work in an environment where I feel unsafe when the work I do there will likely not even receive the recognition it would if a white man did the same? To fully understand what we mean by a culture where sexual harassment and sexual violence is pervasive and normalised is absolutely vital. The conception of such a culture is not new, however there is a reluctance to acknowledge that it exists in the spaces we study, work and exist everyday.
“[Rape culture] is a complex of beliefs that encourages male sexual aggression and supports violence against women. It is a society where violence is seen as sexy and sexuality as violent. In a rape culture, women perceive a continuum of threatened violence that ranges from sexual remarks to sexual touching to rape itself. A rape culture condones physical and emotional terrorism against women and presents it as the norm. In a rape culture both men and women assume that sexual violence is a fact of life, inevitable as death or taxes. This violence, however, is neither biologically nor divinely ordained. Much of what we accept as inevitable is in fact the expression of values and attitudes that can change.”
This last sentence is the most important - “Much of what we accept as inevitable is in fact the expression of values and attitudes that can change.” There is only so much that female role models can do to root out the insidious culture that exists from labs to lecture theatres, and allyship from our more privileged peers and colleagues remains vital in this movement. It is the responsibility of those at the top to work hard to change attitudes amongst staff and to hire and create a safe environment for women and marginalised genders. We must ensure that reports of sexual harassment don’t have negative emotional and professional consequences for victims, and that perpetrators can’t continue to rise up the ranks once reported, as we so often see.
A lack of women in STEM careers is hugely detrimental to progression in the field, losing the insight, creativity and knowledge that we could otherwise provide. The more women in positions of power in STEM, the more welcoming the environment will become for us and other marginalised groups. At the heart of the problem is that the STEM environment is designed to benefit and allow the progression of straight, cis, white men, and whether it's through sexual harassment, microaggressions or general lack of accessibility, it hardly seems an accident that the space continues to feel unwelcoming to women and marginalised genders.
“Sexual harassment is driving some of our brightest minds away from careers in research at a time when we need them most. If we are to tackle the scientific and technological challenges ahead of us, we must do more to ensure women are free to conduct their research without being degraded, harassed, or abused because of their gender.”