Sexism and Homophobia Reach Every Continent

Australians who worked at Antarctic research stations have reported there being a culture of sexual harassment.

According to Australian media company ABC, workers said they experienced harassment, unwelcome requests for sex, taunting, displays of offensive pornography and homophobia.

Some 42 countries operate research stations on the Antarctic mainland year-round, with Antarctica having a population of about 4,000 people during the summer and 1,000 in the dark winter. Australia has four research stations in operation, named Mawson, Davis, Casey and Beaver Lake.

The culture of sexism at the Australian research stations was so bad that some women even felt the need to hide their periods for fear of being judged by male peers, keeping tampons in for longer than recommended or using improvised products, according to an external review of the culture at Antarctic research stations, commissioned by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD).

"They change their menstrual products without privacy or adequate sanitation; carry bloody menstrual products around with them in the field for long periods of time; improvise menstrual products when none are available; keep menstrual products in their bodies for longer than recommended because they are not provided with adequate toilet stops," the report said.

"Whilst women in this study found a range of ways to individually cope, the more concerning issue is that people who menstruate feel compelled to uphold a male-dominated field culture in which menstruation is concealed and controlled to meet masculine cultural norms."

There has historically been a low representation of women in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). According to the U.S. Census data, only 8 percent of STEM workers were women in 1970, and while that number had increased to 27 percent in 2019, that is still much lower than half.

Since 2000, women have earned more than half of the total number of both science/engineering bachelor's degrees and doctorates in the U.S., according to the Atlantic.

This discrepancy has conscious and subconscious ripple effects across the field: one study from 2019 found that male principal investigators get a typical National Institutes of Health research grant that is $41,000 greater on average than those granted to women.

Professor Meredith Nash, who wrote the report, told the Sydney Morning Herald that she is concerned the sexist culture on Antarctica will discourage women from going, losing the research station essential scientific workers.

"Women just don't go back to Antarctica, they lose something, and we lose some of the greatest minds who could help tackle one of our biggest problems in the climate crisis."

"The report shows women are experiencing unsafe environments, but I don't want the response to that to be not to send women [to Antarctica] at all," Nash said. "It's not women's responsibility."

The report appears to have galvanized officials to make real change at the research stations, moving the culture towards a more welcoming place for women and LGBTQ+ people.

"As a minister, I take a zero-tolerance response to sexual harassment in any workplace I am responsible for," Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek told ABC.

"I was actually gobsmacked to read some of the reports here talking about pornographic material up on the walls [because] I really did think that we had eradicated this thing from Australians decades ago," she said. "I hope the report will be a catalyst for further change."

The report made 42 recommendations on how to change the culture at the stations, including the creation of an "equity and inclusion task force," as well as providing free period products without having to request them from another member of staff. Additionally, alcohol was banned on the stations months ago.