A QUARTER of people working in science have experienced sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination over issues ranging from disabilities to diet.
The 2019 polled nearly 3700 people across Europe and North America who worked in academia, industry and government agencies. The data revealed a gap of about 拢10,000 between the average salaries of male and female respondents in the UK.
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Of the countries surveyed, discrimination and harassment seems highest in the US and Canada. Twenty nine per cent of respondents in North America said they had experienced this at work, compared with 19 per cent of people in the UK and 25 per cent in the rest of Europe.
Across all regions, respondents were most likely to say they had experienced discrimination and harassment on the basis of gender, followed by age and race. Men and women both reported encountering such behaviour: in the UK, 23 per cent of women said they had experienced discrimination and harassment, compared with 15 per cent of men.
鈥淭o speak up against scientists who are eminent leaders in their field requires strength鈥�
Hollywood鈥檚 鈥淢e Too鈥� movement against sexual harassment has spread to many other areas of society. Twitter users have used the #MeTooSTEM banner to allege that some high-profile researchers have harassed and bullied with impunity.
Several survey respondents told 麻豆传媒 that they believe the career structures within academia make this kind of behaviour more likely to go unchecked. One of the biggest problems may be that senior university researchers bring in large grants from research funders to their institutions.
鈥淭he power is often with the money,鈥� comments Laura Norton at the Royal Society of Chemistry.
This can be compounded by hierarchical power structures. 鈥淕roup leaders are often seen as eminent leaders in their field,鈥� says Norton. 鈥淭o speak up against those people requires strength.鈥�
Even researchers who aren鈥檛 a big name have a lot of power over those at the early stages of their career 鈥� someone doing a PhD, for instance, is beholden to their supervisor. This was a problem for Tina (not her real name), who believes that her PhD supervisor sabotaged her thesis because he was sexually interested in her and wanted to prolong their relationship.
She says he made comments about her body, bought her dresses that he asked her to wear to dinner, and repeatedly told her she needed to restart her thesis from scratch without giving her constructive advice on how to improve it.
Tina says the stress eventually began to affect her health, and when her PhD funding ran out she felt she had to leave without completing her thesis.
Zero tolerance
The survey uncovered bad behaviour in industry, too. While working in quality control for a chemicals manufacturing firm, Pete (not his real name) says he had to put up with a colleague repeatedly asking if he was gay. At one time, the man made up a rhyme calling Pete a paedophile. Pete complained to his manager, but nothing was done. Others said they faced discrimination for having disabilities or even for being vegan.
Scientific bodies are starting to act on the problem. In the US, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health have announced efforts to clamp down on sexual harassment at institutions that receive their research grants.
The UK鈥檚 Wellcome trust, one of the world鈥檚 biggest charitable funders of medical research, last year said it would pull grants from people or institutions found guilty of any kind of bullying. Last year, the Royal Society of Chemistry suggested all funders should take this approach.
The cross-institution body Universities UK (UUK) has set up a task force to tackle harassment of students, but this doesn鈥檛 cover non-students and no institution is obliged to follow its advice. 鈥淲e know that more needs to be done and UUK鈥檚 work in this area is ongoing,鈥� a spokesperson said.
鈥淲e have called on everyone in the community to enforce a zero-tolerance approach,鈥� says Norton. 鈥淲ithout doing that you鈥檙e enabling a culture that some people would call toxic.鈥�
