Sexual Harassment of Women Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2018) / Chapter Skim
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7 Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations
7 Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations
Pages 169-188
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From page 169... ...
A systemwide change to the culture and climate in our nation's colleges and universities can stop the pattern of harassing behavior from impacting the next generation of women entering science, engineering, and medicine. Changing the current culture and climate requires addressing all forms of sexual harassment, not just the most egregious cases; moving beyond legal compliance; supporting targets when they come forward; improving transparency and accountability; diffusing the power structure between faculty and trainees; and revising organizational systems and structures to value diversity, inclusion, and respect.
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From page 170... ...
It is considered illegal when it creates a hostile environment (gender harassment or unwanted sexual attention that is "severe or pervasive" enough to alter the conditions of employment, interfere with one's work performance, or impede one's ability to get an education) or when it is quid pro quo sexual harassment (when favorable professional or educational treatment is conditioned on sexual activity)
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From page 171... ...
e. Sexually harassing behaviors are not typically isolated incidents; rather, they are a series or pattern of sometimes escalating incidents and behaviors.
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From page 172... ...
a. Greater than 50 percent of women faculty and staff and 20–50 percent of women students encounter or experience sexually harassing conduct in academia.
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3. The greater the frequency, intensity, and duration of sexually harassing behaviors, the more women report symptoms of depression, stress, and anxiety, and generally negative effects on psychological well-being.
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From page 174... ...
Women faculty in science, engineering, and medicine who experience sexual harassment report three common professional out comes: stepping down from leadership opportunities to avoid the perpetrator, leaving their institution, and leaving their field altogether. Chapter 5: Existing Legal and Policy Mechanisms for Addressing Sexual Harassment 1.
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From page 175... ...
Educating employees via sexual harassment training is commonly implemented as a central component of demonstrating to courts that institu tions have "exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any sexually harassing behavior." However, research has not demonstrated that such training prevents sexual harassment. Thus, if institutions evaluated their training programs, they would likely find them to be ineffective, which, in turn, could raise fears within institutions of their risk for liability because they would then knowingly not be exercising reasonable care.
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From page 176... ...
The leadership of the organization -- at every level -- plays a significant role in establishing and maintaining an organization's culture and norms. However, leaders in academic institutions rarely have leadership training to thoughtfully address culture and climate issues, and the leadership training that exists is often of poor quality.
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From page 177... ...
5. Systems and policies that support targets of sexual harassment and pro vide options for informal and formal reporting can reduce the reluctance to report harassment as well as reduce the harm sexual harassment can cause the target.
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e. An approach for improving transparency and demonstrating that the institution takes sexual harassment seriously is to encourage internal review of its policies, procedures, and interventions for addressing sexual harassment, and to have interactive dialogues with members of their campus community (especially expert researchers on these topics)
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From page 179... ...
10. Creating a climate that prevents sexual harassment requires measuring the climate in relation to sexual harassment, diversity, and respect, and assessing progress in reducing sexual harassment.
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From page 180... ...
Policies, procedures, trainings, and interventions, specifically how they prevent and stop sexually harassing behavior, alter perception of or ganizational tolerance for sexually harassing behavior, and reduce the negative consequences from reporting the incidents. This includes infor mal and formal reporting mechanisms, bystander intervention training, academic leadership training, sexual harassment training, interventions to improve civility, mandatory reporting requirements, and approaches to supporting and improving communication with the target.
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From page 181... ...
RECOMMENDATION 2: Address the most common form of sexual harassment: gender harassment. Leaders in academic institutions and research and training sites should pay increased attention to and enact policies that cover gender harassment as a means of addressing the most common form of sexual harassment and of preventing other types of sexually harassing behavior.
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From page 182... ...
In particular, they should utilize climate surveys to further investigate and address systemic sexual harassment, particularly when surveys indicate specific schools or facilities have high rates of harass ment or chronically fail to reduce rates of sexual harassment.
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c. Leadership training programs for those in academia should include training on how to recognize and handle sexual harassment issues, and how to take explicit steps to create a culture and climate to reduce and prevent sexual harassment -- and not just protect the institution against liability.
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a. Academic institutions should work to apply for awards from the emerg ing STEM Equity Achievement (SEA Change)
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From page 185... ...
e. Requiring institutions receiving federal funds to publicly disclose results from campus climate surveys and/or the number of sexual harassment reports made to campuses.
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From page 186... ...
b. Policies, procedures, trainings, and interventions, specifically their abil ity to prevent and stop sexually harassing behavior, to alter perception of organizational tolerance for sexually harassing behavior, and to reduce the negative consequences from reporting the incidents.
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RECOMMENDATION 15: Make the entire academic community responsible for reducing and preventing sexual harassment. All members of our nation's college campuses -- students, trainees, faculty, staff, and administrators -- as well as members of research and training sites should assume responsibility for promoting civil and respectful education, training, and work environments, and stepping up and confronting those whose behaviors and actions create sexually harassing environments.
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