Sexual harassment in science

Last week's issue of Nature calls for an end to sexual harassment in science. The editorial was triggered by a scandal centered on a blogger who was the editor of the Scientific American blogs. He has resigned. The editorial casts a wider net, introducing the generic character “Dr. Inappropriate” who represents “the widespread tacit acceptance of adolescent behavior.” DTLR endorses their call for fighting back against sexual harassment in science. Although I am keenly sensitive to the potential for false accusations, I condemn scientists who commit sexual harassment, particularly when they do so in the context of an unequal power relationship with the target.

As a male scientist, I have been fortunate not to have been the target of such harassment. However, as a graduate student in the late 1990s, I witnessed an incident involving two “Dr. Inappropriates” that shocked me out of my sheltered perception about the behavior of mature scientists.

The setting was as follows. Our department had a weekly seminar, and on one occasion the speaker was a distinguished physics educator from another university.  She was the author of a textbook being used in an experimental introductory class in my department. She had brought along her (female) teaching assistant (now a faculty member in her own right). Following the seminar, they invited the audience to join them in a nearby classroom where they would run a simulation of a cooperative learning class, with us as the 'students'. (Around this time I myself had already taught a couple recitation sections using the cooperative learning format.) A sales representative from the publisher of the experimental textbook was also present; she was also a female.

I was one of the more junior graduate students at the time, just getting started in research.  (At the time there were very few female faculty or students in the department; there are considerably more today.)  I sat down at one of the tables in the classroom, and was soon joined by three male physics faculty members. (Two are now retired; the third is still on the faculty as I write.) Let us call them E, K, and H.  Professor E had a strong interest in physics education, and I had worked with him in the past. The other two didn't know me very well. In any case, K took the time to introduce himself to me again, and there was some small talk. H more or less ignored me.  (I have other unflattering stories to tell about them, but those will be for another time.)

So, the simulated cooperative learning class began. We were all given an assignment to work on in our groups. Each group consisted of whoever was sitting at a table together. The seminar speaker and her assistant circulated in the room, acting as Socratic facilitators for the groups. They listened to our conversations among ourselves, and tried to help us along. E played along with the simulation. However, K and H started drifting into “adolescent behavior”. First, K commented to the rest of us that the teaching assistant, out of earshot, was cute. K and H then pretended to be 'bad students' and basically annoyed the teaching assistant when she stopped by to listen to us or help us along. Unlike E, they were not taking the exercise seriously.  

At one point, the publisher's sales representative came over, obviously interested in promoting the textbook. By now I sensed that K had lost interest in the whole exercise, but H (who was on the textbook committee) started chatting with the sales rep. I can't remember the nature of what he said, but I do remember the impression that he started getting very flirtatious with her. Her reaction was very polite and professional, and she rapidly maneuvered the conversation toward discussion of her kids. She showed H a wallet picture of the children. This put an end to the flirtation, and they started talking about the textbook instead.

The sales rep's maneuver struck me as masterful. It could not have been the first time she had to deal with this sort of thing, and she maneuvered H out of the 'adolescent' behavior firmly but without ruffling his feathers at all. I appreciate the awkward position she was in. She was obviously trying to curry favor with a member of the textbook committee, but also quick to eliminate the flirtation.

This was the first time I had seen physics professors behaving badly. I regret that I did not challenge them. It would have been risky for me to do so, but that is no excuse. A challenge is precisely what the Nature editorial recommends as a non-legalistic way to discourage such conduct. (However, based on my other interactions with K and H, I speculate they would have ignored any such challenge from me, or even attempted retaliation.) I can only imagine how much more difficult it would have been had I been a female graduate student instead. It would be totally demoralizing to witness the entire episode and understand that this is how some physics professors are capable of treating women when in a professional setting.

I ran into E a few days later, and he expressed his dismay in his colleagues. (He was also a little unhappy with me, as I pretty much said nothing throughout the whole exercise, failing to back up E in playing along with the simulation.) It is notable that even E did not feel empowered to challenge K and H in person at the time – all three were tenured. Tenured professors are untouchable.

What do I take away from this? It isn't clear whether sexual harassment by any legal definition took place. The episode I describe falls into what the Nature editorial calls a grey zone. K's comment about the 'cute' teaching assistant occurred when she was out of earshot, and didn't lead to anything further. H's flirtations ended once it was made clearly unwelcome. K's and H's 'bad student' act was not sexual harassment, but just general 'adolescent' behavior. Nonetheless, my witnessing of this episode made it possible for me to imagine that sexual harassment might indeed take place, under different circumstances, and that it could be perpetrated by people who are set up to be mentors and authority figures to me and other students. Indeed, what I observed that day seems relatively harmless compared to the Scientific American blog scandal, where a real abuse of power is alleged.

The reason the episode was a shock to me was that every single faculty member I had ever interacted with until then was, in my view, an honorable and professional person, and I had never seen professors act immaturely until that moment. Perhaps the one positive outcome was that my blissful naivete ended that afternoon.

Recommended reading

Eileen Pollack, 2013:  Why are there still so few women in science?  New York Times, Oct. 3, 2013.

UPDATE:  A bit off topic, but Sabine Hossenfelder has a (back)reaction to Pollack's piece on her blog.