And the most depressing.
So then we looked at the rate at which women and men experience sexual harassment and assault. 59% of our sample reported it, with women having a three times greater risk than men. 19% of our sample reported sexual assault, but while women did again have greater numbers, the male sample size in this group (n = 1) was too small to test this statistically.
These are some of the preliminary findings from a survey administered by Kate Clancy, Katie Hinde, Robin Nelson and Julienne Rutherford. Anthropology is defined in many ways by its association with intense, sustained field work. It is one of the most exciting parts of the job, but it is a profoundly liminal space and one that has great potential for abuse. I will have more to say about these findings later, but for now, I will let Kate and colleagues get the conversation started:
Too many of us, the authors of this study included, have told ourselves and others that we just need to “suck it up,” just endure one more day, to keep our heads down and power through. Survival in field-based academic science can’t just be about who can put up with or witness abuse the longest – that is not an appropriate metric to measure who is the best at their science. From here on out, let’s commit to opening up conversations about these issues, rather than avoiding or talking around them. Let’s continue to be the progressive field that interrogates gender disparities, and lead the way for the rest of the field-based sciences.
UPDATE: John Bohannon writes up this story for Science
