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A new report released from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) reveals a reframing of the way we talk about sexual harassment. The new phrase, “gender harassment” encompasses a broader issue plaguing women trying to advance in the scientific, technical and medical fields.
What is gender harassment?
Gender harassment, as defined by NASEM, is “behaviors that belittle women and make them feel like they don’t belong.”
How is gender harassment different from sexual harassment?
They certainly overlap, but sexual harassment includes unwanted touches and advances that are more often reported than the more subtle issues of gender harassment which can include sexist remarks and demeaning comments.
NASEM’s publication, “Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2018)” reports that 2 large surveys from major research universities showed that the type of sexual harassment students faced from faculty and staff that medical, technology and engineering students most often faced was “sexual hostility”. This could include being told women were not smart enough to succeed in STEM or hearing demeaning comments and jokes related to the student’s gender. The surveys also reported a low report rate of physical sexual harassment and coercion. This data shows the issues with how most sexual harassment surveys are created and reported. Most surveys focus on the physical types of sexual harassment instead of the hostility issues. Tailoring the surveys toward gender discrimination, could reveal a lot more about the ongoing issues in academia.
The impact of the sexual hostility women face in STEM, causes, according to NASEM, leave or not even pursue positions of leadership in their fields. It recommends treating this issue as a cultural problem that needs reform. Current practices of online sexual harassment training, underreporting gender harassment, and policies for handling complaints are ineffective and need to be addressed so that STEM fields can attract and retain top female talent.
These are urgent issues to address. Gender harassment doesn’t just occur in academia, it’s serious issue occurring in every field. Top female talent will leave positions of power rather than to continue working near their perpetrators in hostile environments.
For more information, or to learn about what rights you have if you’ve suffered gender harassment in your workplace, send us a message.
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