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Here's the study report (free with "Guest" login): https://www.nap.edu/download/24994 https://www.nap.edu/download/24994 "Findings and Conclusions" sections ar

by kolpa 8y ago

Here's the study report (free with "Guest" login): https://www.nap.edu/download/24994 https://www.nap.edu/download/24994 "Findings and Conclusions" sections are too long to summarize. excerpt from the "Students" section: KEY TAKEAWAYS • Overall, 20.0 percent of the students surveyed reported experiencing sexual harassment perpetrated by a faculty or staff member. • Female students (22.0 percent) and students who endorsed a gender other than male or female (46.3 percent) had significantly higher incidence rates of sexual harassment by faculty/staff, compared with male students (15.3 percent). • Female medical and engineering students both reported significantly higher incidence of sexual harassment by faculty/staff (medical: 47 percent, engineering: 27 percent), compared with students enrolled in another major (i.e., sciences, non-STEM). • Female students who experienced sexual harassment, compared with those who had not, generally reported worse physical and mental health outcomes, feeling less safe on campus, and higher levels across various indicators of academic disengagement. * Among female STEM students, although white (non-Hispanic) students reported greater incidence of sexual harassment by faculty/staff, students of color and white Hispanic students who experienced sexual harassment by faculty/staff generally perceived their campus as less safe than the other female STEM students.

strken 8y ago
Interesting that the rate for male students is ~70% of the rate for female students. I wonder if it's always been that high and nobody noticed, whether it's going up, or whether the female rate is going down faster.
- danieltillett 8y ago
  ...or they define harassment so broadly that almost everyone is included. As a male scientist (former) I have been "harrassed" by male and female staff on many occasions, but on a level so trivial that it is totally meaningless. What we need to worry about is not trivial harassment, but the serious cases like staff sleeping with their students or continually propositing them with threats or inducements to their careers. Let's get away from a number grab and start focusing on the really bad first [1]. 1. My personal experience is the Sciences are the least bad in regard serious harassment with the Arts the worst by a factor of 10x at least.
  - brlewis 8y ago
    The percentages are not consistent with a definition that includes almost everyone.
    - danieltillett 8y ago
      They certainly can be. If you ask 100 people if behaviour x is harassment at the minor end you will get a lot of variation. As I mentioned before I was technically sexually harassed many times when I was younger, but I would not consider myself to have been sexually harassed purely because it was so minor in my mind. A lot of it was just playful banter that went too far, but some of it was more than this and not pleasant. In the greater scheme of bad things that have happened to me in life it was not important. What is much more of a problem in academia is abuse of power. Academics have huge power and unfortunately far to many abuse this power at the expense of their students and postdocs.
      - CodeCube 8y ago
        Just because you don't find the casual/small stuff to be a problem, doesn't mean it's not a problem. Your line will be different than others, you said it yourself with your comment on the variation ... why discount those who find that it has been problematic?
        danieltillett 8y ago
        Because as I already mentioned there are far bigger issues to worry about in Academia. Worrying about trivial harassment is like worrying about a scratch on your arm when you have a gunshot wound in the gut.
danieltillett 8y ago
In other words Science is the area with the least harassment, but I guess that doesn't make a very good headline. Did they define what they called harassment?
sheepmullet 8y ago
Thanks for reading the paper and posting a summary. Do you know if they broke all of these findings up by category and severity?

by kolpa 8y ago

strken 8y ago

Interesting that the rate for male students is ~70% of the rate for female students. I wonder if it's always been that high and nobody noticed, whether it's going up, or whether the female rate is going down faster.

danieltillett 8y ago
...or they define harassment so broadly that almost everyone is included. As a male scientist (former) I have been "harrassed" by male and female staff on many occasions, but on a level so trivial that it is totally meaningless. What we need to worry about is not trivial harassment, but the serious cases like staff sleeping with their students or continually propositing them with threats or inducements to their careers. Let's get away from a number grab and start focusing on the really bad first [1]. 1. My personal experience is the Sciences are the least bad in regard serious harassment with the Arts the worst by a factor of 10x at least.
- brlewis 8y ago
  The percentages are not consistent with a definition that includes almost everyone.
  - danieltillett 8y ago
    They certainly can be. If you ask 100 people if behaviour x is harassment at the minor end you will get a lot of variation. As I mentioned before I was technically sexually harassed many times when I was younger, but I would not consider myself to have been sexually harassed purely because it was so minor in my mind. A lot of it was just playful banter that went too far, but some of it was more than this and not pleasant. In the greater scheme of bad things that have happened to me in life it was not important. What is much more of a problem in academia is abuse of power. Academics have huge power and unfortunately far to many abuse this power at the expense of their students and postdocs.
    - CodeCube 8y ago
      Just because you don't find the casual/small stuff to be a problem, doesn't mean it's not a problem. Your line will be different than others, you said it yourself with your comment on the variation ... why discount those who find that it has been problematic?
      - danieltillett 8y ago
        Because as I already mentioned there are far bigger issues to worry about in Academia. Worrying about trivial harassment is like worrying about a scratch on your arm when you have a gunshot wound in the gut.

danieltillett 8y ago

In other words Science is the area with the least harassment, but I guess that doesn't make a very good headline. Did they define what they called harassment?

sheepmullet 8y ago

Thanks for reading the paper and posting a summary. Do you know if they broke all of these findings up by category and severity?