The National Academies report, Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, found that system-wide changes to the culture and climate in higher education are needed to prevent and effectively respond to sexual harassment. There is no evidence that current policies, procedures, and approaches—which often focus on symbolic compliance with the law and on avoiding liability—have resulted in a significant reduction in sexual harassment. Colleges and universities and federal agencies should move beyond basic legal compliance to adopt holistic, evidence-based policies and practices to address and prevent all forms of sexual harassment and to promote a culture of civility and respect. The cumulative result of sexual harassment in academic sciences, engineering, and medicine is significant damage to research integrity and a costly loss of talent in these fields. Institutions should thus consider sexual harassment equally important as research misconduct in terms of its effect on the integrity of research.

The report states that addressing and preventing sexual harassment requires attending to all three forms of sexual harassment: 1) gender harassment (sexist hostility and crude behavior), (2) unwanted sexual attention (unwelcome verbal or physical sexual advances), and (3) sexual coercion (when favorable professional or educational treatment is conditioned on sexual activity). Gender harassment is by far the most common form of sexual harassment, and when severe or frequent, it can result in the same level of negative outcomes as one instance of sexual coercion. Leaders must 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.

Four key recommendations from the report for academic institutions to address and prevent sexual harassment are:

1. Create diverse, inclusive, and respectful environments. Academic institutions should create a diverse, inclusive, and respectful environment where these values are aligned with and embedded into the systems, structures, policies, and procedures of the institution. Their leaders should prioritize taking actions that will result in greater gender and racial equity in hiring and promotions. They should also foster greater cooperation, respectful work behavior, and professionalism at the faculty, staff, and student/trainee levels, and should evaluate faculty and staff on these criteria in hiring and promotion. Institutions should combine anti-harassment and civility-promotion programs. They should ensure that training on preventing and addressing sexual harassment is tailored for specific populations, provides skills needed by all members of the academic community, teaches how to interrupt and intervene when harassment occurs, and focuses on changing behavior, not on changing beliefs. Institutions must evaluate training programs for efficacy and to determine what aspects most effectively change climate, and reduce and prevent harassment.
2. Improve transparency and accountability. Academic institutions should develop and readily share clear, accessible, and consistent policies on sexual harassment and standards of behavior. They should include a range of clearly stated, appropriate, and escalating disciplinary consequences for perpetrators found to have violated policy and/or law. Such consequences should be punitive, not something often considered a benefit, such as a reduction in teaching load or time away from campus service responsibilities. Policies should also include an investigative and decision making process that is fair to all involved and that is undertaken and completed in a timely manner. Academic institutions should strive for greater transparency in how they are handling reports of sexual harassment while balancing a need for confidentiality. They should issue annual reports that provide information on (1) how many and what type of policy violations have been reported (both informally and formally), (2) how many reports are currently under investigation, and (3) how many have been adjudicated, along with general descriptions of any disciplinary actions taken. Academic institutions should be accountable for their organizational climate, and utilize climate surveys to further investigate and address systemic sexual harassment, particularly when surveys indicate specific schools or facilities have high rates of harassment or chronically fail to reduce rates of sexual harassment.
3. Diffuse the hierarchical and dependent relationship between trainees and faculty. Academic institutions should identify and enact mechanisms to diffuse concentrated power and dependencies in relationships between trainees and faculty/advisors, such as using mentoring networks and committee-based advising, and providing independent funding.
4. Provide support for the target. Academic institutions should convey that reporting sexual harassment is an honorable and courageous action and provide (1) access to support services (social services, health care, legal, career/professional) regardless of if a formal report is filed, (2) alternative and less formal ways to record information about an incident, and (3) approaches that prevent the target from experiencing or fearing retaliation.

The report has been viewed online more than 75,000 times, media coverage has reached 8 billion people, there have been over 100 events/meetings on it, and academic institutions and scientific societies have begun implementing its recommendations.

Last Modified: 12/05/2019
Modified by: Thomas W Rudin