Short Wave - Gender Discrimination And Harassment At Sea

Episode Date: October 13, 2020

Back in December, we brought you two episodes on the MOSAiC expedition. With hundreds of scientists from 20 countries, the German-led polar research mission is the largest in history. But the mission has also been marked by reports of gender discrimination and harassment. So today, we're turning away from the research and talking to Chelsea Harvey, an E&E News reporter who joined MOSAiC for several weeks. We talk about her recent story and her own experiences on the expedition.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. The wan polar sun was falling on October 8th halfway through a six-week voyage across the Central Arctic Ocean. Four women listened in quiet disbelief to the rules of a new dress code. No leggings, no crop tops, no hot pants, nothing too tight or too revealing. It was for their own safety, they were told. Most of the crew on board the ship were men. Chelsea Harvey, a reporter for E&E News, was part of a group of journalists aboard the Russian research vessel, Academic Federov. They were there to report on the Mosaic Expedition, a research mission that set off late last year to study how climate change is impacting the Arctic.

With hundreds of scientists from 20 countries, the German-led polar expedition is the largest in history. For Chelsea... Just the opportunity to get up into the Central Arctic is so rare. and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And I really kind of had this feeling as I was going that this is an environment that is rapidly changing due to climate change. And, you know, if I had the opportunity to come back in 30 or 50 years,

that it might not look the same at all. And so that was something that was really special. But Chelsea says that excitement shifted following several incidences of gender discrimination. Discrimination that's symptomatic of a larger history. Polar research has kind of perpetuated this archetype of the white male explorer, and that really has come at the exclusion of women until very recently. And I think that this episode on this particular ship kind of illustrated a lot of the types of events

that still today are common on polar research expeditions. For instance, Chelsea points to that meeting around the dress code. I think for me and for a lot of other people, you know, it sparked a lot of resentment first of all, because a lot of people had this impression that, you know, women were being sort of asked to change the way that they looked in order to manage the behavior of men on board the ship. Now, if the Mosaic Expedition sounds familiar to you, it might be because back in December we aired two episodes on the research being done.

But today, we're turning away from the research and focusing on Chelsea's reporting. The Mosaic Expedition, Gender Discrimination and Harassment, and how they're an all too common reality for many field scientists. I'm Maddie Safaya, and this is Shortwave from NPR. So on October 8th, a few weeks into the mission, a meeting was called, and it was led by this communications manager with AWI, the German Institute, kind of spearheading the mission. Who was there, and what was that meeting about?

Right. So that meeting was held by Katerina Weiss, Tweeter, who was a communications manager. And she held that meeting with all of the journalists who were on board the ship at that time. And so at that point there were four of us, all women. And so we all sat down and she kind of told us, I want to just clarify the rules of the new dress code that was announced yesterday at the general meeting. And then she went on to tell us, you know, this is a safety issue. and there are a lot of men on board this ship, and some of them are going to be on this ship for a month at a time,

and this is a safety issue, you know, something that needs to be taken seriously. And so I should say she did not come out and say, we are concerned that men on this ship are going to harass you or assault you if you dress a certain way. But it was heavily implied, you know, by this multiple times telling us There are many men on board the ship, and you need to not wear tight-fitting clothing or revealing clothing. Yeah, yeah. I mean, what did you take from that?

Like, when you walked away from that meeting, what did you take from that? Well, what we took from it was that there was a risk of harassment or something worse, you know, if we didn't dress more modestly on board the ship. And we really were alarmed by this because we started wondering if there had been some incident. that had prompted the change in the rules. And what was this bit about a safety issue? Was there some threat to the safety of the women on board? And what exactly was that threat? And so we were, you know, of course, irritated by this implication

that we should have to change the way we dress because there are a lot of men on board the ship, but we were also alarmed. Yeah. I mean, when you wrote about the dress code meeting, you noted that it came after some problems with her. harassment that it already sort of percolated on the ship. That's correct. Although at the time, we actually were not aware of that. So as I reported the story, that came out in my reporting later.

There had been an incident in which some women on board the ship reported to the cruise leader that they had been harassed by men on board the ship. And then, you know, there was a meeting. It was brought to the captain and the men were prohibited from further contact with those participants. And it was never made widely known to anybody else on board the ship that there had been an incident like this. And so nobody knew about this at the time the dress code was announced. So, you know, we all kind of had this suspicion about a safety issue. What exactly does that mean? And, you know, was there some incident? But I did not find out that any incident had occurred until much later. Yeah. And this wasn't the only incident of gender-based discrimination while

you were aboard, right? You wrote that the dress code kind of became a symbol of these inequities, but there was other stuff going on, too. That's correct. So there was the harassment incident that occurred shortly before the dress code was enacted. And then later on, there was an incident in which a group of participants were kind of called together, asked to volunteer, basically to participate in a work assignment. And the work assignment involved a helicopter ride over to the Polarstern, which was the main research vessel participating in the expedition and basically helping to kind of unload a bunch of boxes and supplies and that sort of thing.

And so the group that volunteered for this work assignment originally consisted of both men and women and then later on the cruise leader removed the two women participants from that work assignment and replaced them with men. And I'm told that this event also sparked a lot of resentment among the women who were familiar with that incident. And so, you know, I asked the cruise leader later about this incident and he said that he did this to comply with a German law that dictates how much men are allowed to lift on work assignments versus how much women are allowed to lift on work assignments. But it was a little odd because, you know, he sent me the law and I looked it over. And the way he described the work assignment and the amount of weight that was going to be

distributed among the people participating, those weights should have actually exceeded the weight limits for both men and women. So I could not get really a clear justification on why only women were removed from that work assignment. And again, people who were involved with that situation or who were familiar with that situation were upset by that as well. Yeah. And I mean, Chelsea, this isn't just the mosaic, right? In your reporting, you discussed a 2018 study by the National Science Foundation about the prevalence of sexual harassment. And you noted, according to the study, the two biggest predictors are settings where there are more men than women and, I'm quoting, environments that suggest a tolerance for bad behavior.

I mean, is this the situation that you saw when you were reporting on the Mosaic mission? Right. So I spoke with various experts on gender and policy in field science and in polar science. And they all kind of pointed to leadership on these expeditions as really a primary factor in what kind of environment is it going to be, you know, for the women participating in these expeditions. And so it's really important from what I've been told by these experts to have a leadership that is prepared to deal with issues of sexual harassment or discrimination if they should come up. Leadership that's trained to deal with these kinds of issues that's trained to prevent these kinds of issues from coming up in the first place, leadership that sets very clear rules and boundaries at the start of an expedition for what will be tolerated and what will not be tolerated. And I think that really does speak to what went wrong on academic Federov.

You know, there was a dress code that was enacted midway through the cruise. It was a surprise to everybody. It was communicated in a really kind of vague and distressing and alarming way. You know, there was a harassment incident that arose that, you know, was kind of maybe swept under the rug a little bit at the time. May or may not have influenced the dress code. So, yes, I think this really all speaks to kind of a lack of preparation to prevent these kinds of issues from arising in the first place and from dealing with them in the proper ways when they do arise. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, Chelsea, I'm wondering, what is the response to your piece been so far since you wrote it?

The response to the piece has been mainly very positive so far. So I've heard from a lot of scientists, a lot of researchers, both in polar science and in other fields, you know, who have been very supportive and who have said, you know, this is an issue that happens all the time that's very common, but that needs to be talked about more. And so, you know, it's very important to kind of bring these issues into the light. And, you know, I mean, it has been, it's not been great to hear that there are so many other people who have had similar experiences. You know, that's, that's disappointing and distressing to hear. But. But a lot of people have said, you know, this is very common and it is good that we're starting to talk about this more. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you mentioned, Chelsea, some moments of solidarity from the participants aboard. The most recent being this unified statement responding to your article signed by the large majority of grad students on board. Did this, you know, inspire any hope for you about the future of this type of field research? It did. Absolutely. It did. That statement basically said that, you know, it was disappointing to see rules and policies on board the ship that might imply that, you know, women should have to change the way they dress to manage the behavior of men or policies that might limit women's involvement in fieldwork. And so, you know, the students did note in their statement that they were, you know, grateful for the opportunity to go on this expedition and to work with leading polar scientists in the field. but this was something that was not acceptable to them.

And, you know, it was encouraging to read that statement and to just kind of see the interest and the concern about these kinds of issues from, you know, what's going to be the next generation of polar scientists. And, you know, I do think that this is something that will hopefully garner a little bit more attention and inspire some change in the future. A final note here.

We reached out to the Alfred Vegner Institute, the group that spearheaded the expedition for their response to Chelsea's reporting. In a statement, they said, quote, sexual harassment, misconduct, and discrimination in any way, shape, or form, and regardless of when and where, are not tolerated by us or anyone acting on our behalf. The statement goes on to say that the dress code applied to all expedition participants regardless of their sex. They also said, and I'm paraphrasing, that the dress code, was actually conveyed at the beginning, but was explained again after multiple infractions and that it was independent of the incident on board.

Today's episode was produced by Rebecca Ramirez, edited by Viet Le, and fact-checked by Aureelizabethi. I'm Maddie Safaya, and this is Shortwave from NPR. See you next time. I'm Rodney Carmarclay. I'm Sidney Madden. And on our new podcast, louder than a riot, we trace the collision of rhyme and puny. in America.

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