
Sexual harassment is pervasive in US physics programmes - bcaulfield
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01303-6
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phantarch
I don't deny that this is an issue in any college setting where lots of
hormone-driven young men are crammed together around a smaller number of
women, but something about the way the question in the article is posed makes
me suspicious of the intensity or widespread nature of the claim:

> Of the 455 people who responded, 338 reported experiencing some form of
> sexual harassment, including gender harassment — such as being ignored
> because of their sex or gender, or being told inappropriate jokes — unwanted
> sexual attention or a combination thereof during the previous two years.

How inappropriate were the jokes? How much of it was harassment versus social
unawareness? How does the survey distinguish between idle chatter that goes
south and aggressive men with bad intentions that corner women in the
stairwells of physics buildings?

Again, I don't deny the issue, but short articles like these that are lacking
in detail about their claims, then link to another article from the same site,
which links to a $55 copy of the study [1] seem like insufficient data points
beyond everyone's gut feel that "sexism and harassment are a problem in male-
dominated fields"

[1] [https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24994/sexual-harassment-of-
women...](https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24994/sexual-harassment-of-women-
climate-culture-and-consequences-in-academic)

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notTyler
I had a friend get physically harassed and eventually get forced to exit the
program when she demanded action. Anecdotal, sure, but I would guess it is
more common than people realize or want to admit.

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alkibiades
“such as being ignored because of their sex”

this doesn’t quite fit into most people’s definition of sexual harassment

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mjfl
It also implies mind reading. How do they know that for sure? They don't.

