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  • Featured in Physics
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Sexual harassment reported by undergraduate female physicists

Lauren M. Aycock1,*, Zahra Hazari2, Eric Brewe2,3, Kathryn B. H. Clancy4,5, Theodore Hodapp6, and Renee Michelle Goertzen6

  • 1American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Fellow, Department of Energy, Washington, District of Columbia, 20585, USA
  • 2STEM Transformation Institute, Department of Teaching & Learning, and Department of Physics, Florida International University, Miami, Florida 33199, USA
  • 3Department of Physics and School of Education, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
  • 4Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
  • 5Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
  • 6American Physical Society, College Park, Maryland 20740, USA

  • *Corresponding author. lma67@cornell.edu
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Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 15, 010121 – Published 22 April, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.15.010121

Abstract

Sexual harassment occurs more frequently in male-dominated fields and physics is a more male-dominated field than most other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Thus, it is important to examine the occurrence and impact of sexual harassment on women in physics. A survey of undergraduate women, who attended a conference for undergraduate women in physics, revealed that approximately three quarters (74.3%; 338/455) of survey respondents experienced at least one type of sexual harassment. This sample was recruited from a large fraction of undergraduate women in physics in the United States. We find that certain types of sexual harassment predict a negative sense of belonging and exacerbate the imposter phenomenon. The types of sexual harassment that predict these outcomes, both forms of gender harassment, while seemingly less severe types of harassment, have been found to have substantially negative personal and professional consequences. These findings are important since prior work has found that sense of belonging and the imposter phenomenon are related to students’ persistence in STEM fields. Our results have implications for understanding and improving persistence in physics by informing the community about the occurrence of sexual harassment and its effects so that we can begin to work towards reducing its occurrence and mitigating its effects.

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Yes, Sexual Harassment Still Drives Women Out of Physics

Published 22 April, 2019

A survey of female undergraduates in physics found that three quarters of them experience some form of sexual harassment, leaving them alienated from the field.

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Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 15, 010121– Published 22 April, 2019
  • Received 17 September 2018
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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