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Welcome to the E-discussion

Welcome everyone to this e-discussion on Addressing Sexual Harassment in Research Organizations. We will discuss the occurrence of, response to and prevention of sexual harassment in research performing and research funding organizations, and the higher education sector more broadly.

My name is Claartje Vinkenburg, I am an in-house consultant with Portia ltd, and in the ACT project I am leading the ERA priority group on careers. This e-discussion is the first activity that this group holds. Next to questions to our experts, we welcome and encourage any lessons learned and practice examples of "what works".

Before we begin I would like to repeat four simple rules of engagement to keep the conversation going and flowing.

−    use the "reply" button to respond directly to posts in the thread;
−    refresh the page regularly, using buttons in the address bar or the bottom of the page;
−    do not worry about spelling and grammar - we will polish the final version later;
−    do not mention names or details of sexual harassment cases, respect privacy.

I will start a new comment when we move to the next topic on the agenda. Looking forward!

 

I agree underreporting is an issue - it is an issue methodologically for researchers, for experts when we want to make a case in the institution for more action- it may actually appear that there are not so many cases, so maybe this is not a problem? E.g. if you count the reported cases. I believe, we should always underline that it is not about benchmarking who has less cases but being able to solve any appearing case, support students/workers if such a situation appear and have clear procedures so those who are discriminated can make a claim. 

Thu, 04/16/2020 - 14:44 Permalink

Yes, I agree! And also: if we measure by using surveys, we must ask specific questions. Statistics tend to be higher when people are asked about their experiences in a detailed and concrete way. So rather than "did you ever experience sexual harassment", we should ask "did you ever experience someone sending you ambiguous texts with a sexual undertone", "did you ever experience someone looking at your body in a way that felt uncomfortable", etc.

Thu, 04/16/2020 - 15:04 Permalink

The second topic is the response to sexual harassment. We know there are quite a few examples of situations where institutions have not handled sexual harassment very well (underreporting, retaliation, etc). Is there a pattern to or typology of responses? What can we learn from more positive examples?

(please continue discussing occurrence above if you like!)

Thu, 04/16/2020 - 14:42 Permalink

In my experience, the overwhelming majority of institutions do not respond appropriately and worse create secondary harm to victims. Recent cases in UK universities (e.g. at Warwick: see https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jul/10/warwick-university-apologises-to-women-targeted-by-chat) but also institutions that ought to be role models in this area (e.g. EIGE: see https://www.politico.eu/article/sexual-harassment-eu-gender-equality-agency/). 

 

Really looking forward to some more positive examples of how handle violence. 

Thu, 04/16/2020 - 14:49 Permalink

Unfortunately, I also have little positive interventions to share from the GENERA Network/CoP. The University of Southhamption implemented an online reporting tool (after several cases finally came to the surface) to set up support structure for Victims and/or witnesses of bullying and harassment. They often do not want to make official reports or complaints right away. However, this is just one step.

Lia (GENERA CoP facilitator)

Thu, 04/16/2020 - 15:02 Permalink

In 2015 when I was at the National Union of students, we set up a Pilot Union scheme where we worked with nine students' unions to build their own local Lad Culture Strategies to deal with sexual harassment on their campus and share best practice with other unions. This involved setting up working partnerships between Students Unions and their universities. We also developed resources with them to share. Further details can be found in the link below.   

https://www.nusconnect.org.uk/liberation/women-students/tackling-lad-cu…

Thu, 04/16/2020 - 14:53 Permalink

I think universities are more comfortble tackling sexual harassment between students. When it involves members of staff, whether towards each other or towards students it requires strong gender competent leadership and a culture that values whistleblowing. Unfortunately that is rare: and even when an individual acts (e.g. in the case of Oxford) he may be isolated and pilloried...HEIs are still organisations and they tend to 'circle the wagons'...

Thu, 04/16/2020 - 14:58 Permalink

This is very important to have a deeper reflection on measures and ways to claim harassement if you are a student - this is great that student unions were dedicated to this. Workers are protected to some extent by labour code and sexual harassement is for them a matter of work relations, but in case of students the procedures often need to be more locally designed.  

Thu, 04/16/2020 - 15:06 Permalink

Hello everyone, I appreciate the input of all of you with your various perspectives.

As a Legal Adviser at CERN and former Legal Expert to CERN's Harassment Investigation Panel (and double-hatting as the D&I Programme Leader),  I have observed a significant gap between the (legal) requirements and contstraints to ensure an effective and fair investigation, compared to the expectations of the outcome from the alleged victims of harassment.  The gap can be bridged by producing clear and transparent procedures, but also offering several alternative channels of support to those who have experienced behaviour amounting to sexual or moral harassment (ie. the two types CERN defines in its framework). I can share more on these points, if anyone interested. 

Thu, 04/16/2020 - 14:56 Permalink

Could you please define moral harassment? Is it similar to microagressions?  Derald Wing Sue defines microaggressions as "brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to certain individuals because of their group membership". What are the alternative channels of support? 

Contstraints to ensure an effective and fair investigation - This is very much an issue, we may have procedures but will they overcome the culture of an institution and beat hiararchies? Are there any mechnism of monitoring/auditing those mechanisms at CERN? 

Thu, 04/16/2020 - 15:11 Permalink

In CERN's policy against harassment, "moral harassment" includes: "systematically demeaning, isolating, bullying or attacking a person"; also behaviour that casts doubt on a person's skills or efficiency, undermining their self-confidence or integrity; also discriminatory or offensive comments or behaviour on basis of sex, age, religion, beliefs, nationality, sexual orientation, ethnicity etc"; abuse of authority or power

 

Thu, 04/16/2020 - 15:15 Permalink

I am not so pessimistic. We are learning and we are progressing. 
All French universities made progress thanks to good practice sharing and pressures from the ministry of HE to tackle the issue. 
Preventing made progresses, complaining too. Which is good news. Now we have to make progress in responding.  The topic was very confidential a couple of years ago, it is now a priority. 

Thu, 04/16/2020 - 14:58 Permalink

In our study, we found inadequate responses in almost all cases. People encountered problems such as:

- Many participants felt like the person they went to for help did not believe them

-In other cases, the other person did believe our research participant, but did not offer any help (e.g. making victims responsible for solving the issue). Some participants were actively discouraged from filing a complaint, and/or instructed to stay silent in order to “keep the peace”. In some cases, participants were even forced to sign a formal non-disclosure agreement

-Sometimes, people were willing but unable to provide help (e.g. "this is not part of my task")

-Even if a person was willing to provide a solution, this solution was often experienced as a makeshift measure rather than a structural solution. E.g. coaching, sick leaves and time out for victims, but no investigation or action regarding the perpetrator.

It was not just superiors and formal officers who responded in inadequate ways: bystanders often responded equally inadequate.

Thu, 04/16/2020 - 15:15 Permalink
c.j.vinkenburg

In reply to by agodfroy

In my understanding it is a settlement (victim receives monetary compensation and agrees not to disclose details), Apparently this is about large sums of money in total and it hinders transparency, in terms of culture but also in terms of preventing future incidents (perpetrator moves on to next employer / new victim). Described as a "gagging order"

Thu, 04/16/2020 - 15:04 Permalink

And usually the perpetrator moves quietly or the next position in another city... but I don't think the French universities pay the victims for that. Among non academic staff, the perpetrator may be promoted to move to another service. Crazy situation ! 
very often, the attitude of the victim is ambivalent, many victims are afraid to name the perpetrator and just want to put an end to the harassment. Some go to justice, not so many. We try to accompany them, but it is not always easy. We wonder if it is better to accompany them with external third parties (paid by the university and more neutral) or university services. 

Thu, 04/16/2020 - 15:10 Permalink

Not exactly: the victim does not receive money. 
one question is NDA a judiciary decision or an internal decision ? Usually we have different procedures : the judiciary one where the university is judged as the employer responsible for the safety of staff and students, not all victims want to go to the trial, take a lawyer and suit. The other one is the internal procedure (enquête administrative) with sanctions and decisions  inside the university. It is very different, as the university tends to be on the side of the perpetrator in the formal trial and has to defend itself, in the internal procedure, the university is mostly on the side of the victim. 

Thu, 04/16/2020 - 15:15 Permalink
sara.pilia

In reply to by agodfroy

I think that the big problem is the lack of widespread support from the community. If you go on with all the legal procedures, there will be rumours, and often these rumours are a part of the harassment themselves, and a part of the normalization process of sexual harassment. Sometimes, people don't feel they have the strength, they just want to forget and go on with their lives.
 

Thu, 04/16/2020 - 15:14 Permalink

I believe the campaign is still ongoing. One of the recommendations from 1752 & NUS' Power in the academy: staff sexual misconduct in UK higher education report is:

"New guidance should be provided by the Office for Students and Universities UK to prevent the use of non-disclosure agreements in future settlements between universities and students, to allow greater transparency and trust to build between students and the sector.'

I believe that the Office for Students and Universities UK has yet to do this.

 

Thu, 04/16/2020 - 15:05 Permalink

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