This message was self-deleted by its author

[Starry Messenger]

This message was self-deleted by its author (Starry Messenger) on Sat Jul 19, 2014, 10:35 PM. When the original post in a discussion thread is self-deleted, the entire discussion thread is automatically locked so new replies cannot be posted.

[littlemissmartypants]

1. In graduate school and undergraduate

I was approached by professors offering A grades for sexual acts. Undergraduate I filed a formal complaint and two other students, one male and one female, came forward with similar complaints against the same professor. In graduate school I politely refused and earned my A while others joined him after class for blow jobs because they and I quote "couldn't get an A any other way. "

Power and control never sleep.

War is a racket and so is higher education.

Love, Peace and Shelter. Lmsp

[Starry Messenger]

2. That kind of abuse of power is never acceptable.

Sorry, that was horrible. I am a part-time teacher at a community college. The sexual harassment culture in colleges and universities seems to be worsening.

[DeSwiss]

3. This wretched behavior is endemic to a rotten, hierarchical, patriarchal, society.

- As above, so below.

K&R

[Spitfire of ATJ]

4. I can see where the Internet can end this nonsense....

Those lecherous field researchers are likely to have their advances go viral on YouTube.

[Helen Borg]

5. The number of students going to remote site...

Is infinitesimal, when you consider academia as a whole. So, something is off with this article, IMO. That's why it's a PLOS ONE article, I suppose.

[Starry Messenger]

7. Not a good source?

I'll delete if it's a lousy site. I hate bad science and bad methods.

[Helen Borg]

8. PLOS ONE is a mixed bag, notorious for iffy peer review

Not saying it is a bad paper necessarily, but need to be cautious.

[Starry Messenger]

10. Gotcha. Thank you.

I figured NPR had done due diligence, but maybe that's an incorrect assumption. Wiki says PLOS ONE is a pay-to-publish site:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLOS_ONE

I criticize others for citing things from websites that have this practice, so I think I will delete this with an explanation. The study might be ok, but I'm a big believer in keeping actual peer-reviewed standards in place.

[RainDog]

6. Not to say this is the norm

because I don't think what I'm about to say is the norm - but I remember so well, when my ex taught his first semester he got a call at our home from a student offering a blow job for a better grade. My ex isn't from the U.S., and, he and I had never spoken in those terms and he didn't know what he was being offered, at first... lol. But was scandalized someone would suggest such a thing... but later in his career he told me about men who had made passes at women grad students - and he was disgusted. In spite of the many issues he had, academic integrity wasn't one of them.

I'm sorry to hear that so many in STEM fields are creating hostile work environments for females.

[Helen Borg]

9. In all my years teaching undergrads...

I never got offers of that kind from anyone...

[RainDog]

11. It was a guy who made the offer

not a female. I listened to the guy b/c my ex called me over to the phone to make sure he was hearing what he thought the guy said.

I didn't realize this was in the feminist forum - so, as far as the topic - it's about males, not females, but still about crossing those boundaries that are not okay in situations when one person is in a position of power over another.

That was the only such solicitation he ever got, afaik or remember. The first semester of his career - so it was sort of memorable.

[Starry Messenger]

12. I'm going to delete this. The organization that published the study is problematic.

I might be over-reacting, but pay to publish sites for science are more than iffy in my book. Thank you Helen Borg for pointing that this source might have issues.

Here is the original post.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/07/17/331737485/young-scientists-say-theyre-sexually-abused-in-the-field

Many young scientists dream of their first trip to a remote research site — who wouldn't want to hang out with chimps like Jane Goodall, or sail to the Galapagos like Charles Darwin, exploring the world and advancing science?

But for many scientists, field research can endanger their health and safety.

In a survey of scientists engaged in field research, the majority — 64 percent — said they had personally experienced sexual harassment while at a field site, and 22 percent reported being the victim of sexual assault.

Most of the people reporting harassment or assault were women, and the vast majority were still students or postdocs.

And for female victims, the perpetrator was more likely to be a superior, not a peer. "This is happening to them when they are trainees, when they are most vulnerable within the academic hierarchy," says evolutionary biologist Katie Hinde, an author on the study published Wednesday in PLOS ONE. Hinde and her colleagues say this could be a factor in the large number of women who enter scientific fields but don't continue.

<snip>



So much for the MRA theory that women are simply not attracted to STEM fields.