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...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

...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.

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.