Survey of astronomers and geophysicists reveals systemic bullying
A survey of astronomers and geophysicists has unveiled a “systemic bullying problem” which is “disproportionately worse” for women and members of minority groups, already under-represented in the field.
In a survey of 650 scientists carried out by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) last year, 44 percent of respondents said they had suffered bullying and harassment in the preceding 12 months. Those identifying as disabled or Black and minority ethnic were 40 percent more likely to have experienced bullying than non-disabled and White colleagues, while women and non-binary scientists were 50 percent more likely to be bullied than men.
The survey also found that half of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer astronomers and geophysicists were bullied in the 12 months leading up to the survey – and 12 percent of those identifying as bisexual reported experiencing bullying at least once a week.
“This is the first time data like these have been collected in our field. It’s bleak, sadly somewhat unsurprising, but is unequivocal evidence to show we need to improve the workplace culture in academia,” Aine O’Brien, diversity officer of the Royal Astronomical Society, said of the findings. “We have a well-reported diversity problem in STEM and this does nothing to help. Women and minorities are feeling pushed out.”
“The results from the survey are very concerning indeed,” added RAS president Emma Bunce, professor of planetary plasma physics at the University of Leicester, “and we must act to change this unacceptable situation. The RAS is doing important work to uncover these facts, and we are committed to working alongside the community to urgently improve the environment in astronomy and geophysics.”
“I think in some cases where you’ve got senior people who are perpetrators of bullying it gets overlooked,” Robert Massey, PhD, deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society, told The Register. “Where you have people involved in very high-profile projects, to some extent there’s possibly a tendency for departments to overlook some of that. There shouldn’t be anyone too senior for this to apply to them, you know. We need to hold each other to account when we’re talking through these issues, and simply being incredibly senior, successful, bringing in prizes, money, etc. etc. shouldn’t exempt you from scrutiny to behave decently.”
“We want to be talking to the research councils that fund UK research, the Space Agency and others in the context of research, and saying if this is the stuff that’s being supported it’s clearly unacceptable,” Massey told us of the organisation’s next steps. “We want to have a work climate in which everyone can thrive. But secondly, we also need to be talking to universities and saying that we don’t want to be creating a work climate that drives people out. It simply shouldn’t be happening. So there is a discussion to be had there as well.”
RAS has announced it will be publishing the full results of the survey later this summer, following O’Brien’s presenting of key findings at the virtual National Astronomy Meeting today.
See more here: theregister.com
Header image: istock
PSI editor’s note: Notice there is no mention of those scientists and academics who speak out against the climate and virus scams, and there is plenty of evidence of systemic bullying there.
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sir_isO
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Wth happened to the site yesterday? Seemed like there was attacks and ad bots at about the same time?
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John O'Sullivan
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Apologies to all our readers for the downtime on the site. The issue was a technical problem due to our hosting company.
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sir_isO
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Well, there seems to be an issue with redundant sort of text in the comment fields.
Also, how do you explain to someone that opium -> morphine -> heroin -> baby powder -> carfentanil -> vaccines should make them considering their parenthood planning a bit more comprehensively? With like, plutonium? Maybe that’ll be J&J’s latest healthcare device.
That question has been bothering me.
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sir_isO
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I kinda want to edit this page:
https://skywalkpharma.com/product/carfentanil-powder/
If you scroll down there (coz you’re a slippery slope enthusiast), you’ll notice J&J also sells drugs like vaccines, other than carfentanil and “baby powder”.
Vaccines are pretty hard drugs hey…I’d recommend you try heroin first to build up immunity.
First they get told “Oh, just try one shot. Come on, it won’t do you any harm, it’ll be fun. You can be like all the cool people…if you wear a mask it’ll heighten the experience.”
Pretty sure I’ve heard that before. I’ve seen what happens to some of those vaxxers. After one or two shots, they’re fucked. Vax dealers have absolutely no concern about your safety.
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sir_isO
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When they hallucinate and say shit like “Dude, I’m protected now, it’s like magic…”
and you ask them “Wtf are you talking about?” and they’re all “The virus dude, it’s everywhere”.
And I ask them “Where, what is this virus? I don’t see shit, there’s no proof of it” and they’re like “I can’t explain it, but have you seen spiderman and venom?”.
And then I ask them “Wait, so people get like toxic shit and break? You know, like “venom”?”
So they say “No, nothing like that. But I need to use toxic shit to protect me against that thing that’s like venom”
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Howdy
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“systemic bullying” Well that’s as good a veil as any other.
The article is gender, politics, and race related, as if these professions are somehow believed above it all.
“I think in some cases where you’ve got senior people who are perpetrators of bullying it gets overlooked,”
That’s got to be sarcasm, surely?
“Women and minorities are feeling pushed out.” So what about all the other people being bullied who don’t fall into the two groups? Not important enough, so left by the wayside then, eh?
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Andy
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That is precisely why I mentioned climate and virus skeptics 🙂
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