Many women who work at McMurdo Station, the main United States research base in Antarctica, say the isolated environment and macho culture have allowed sexual harassment and assault to flourish.

The National Science Foundation, the federal agency that oversees the U.S. Antarctic Program, published a report in 2022 in which 59% of women said they’d experienced harassment or assault while on the ice, and 72% of women said such behavior was a problem in Antarctica.

But the problem goes beyond the harassment, The Associated Press found. In reviewing court records and internal communications, and in interviews with more than a dozen current and former employees, the AP uncovered a pattern of women who said their claims of harassment or assault were minimized by their employers, often leading to them or others being put in further danger.

  • ghostBones@lemmy.world
    82·
    1 year ago

    I had a female friend/coworker that had previously served in the Navy, on a carrier as a communications specialist. She told stories of endless harassment. She said ultimately some of the women crafted partnerships with other female sailors and convinced everyone they were lesbians in order to just survive the job. It meant they had to spend lots of time together and play the part. She also said they had to work the jealousy angle because nobody wanted to be attacked by an angry lesbian girlfriend.

    The male sailors assumed a lot of the women were lesbians because of the masculine nature of the work, or, as she put it, because they couldn’t believe the women weren’t attracted to them. It turned out if you gave them a plausible explanation you could fake your way through it. Without a plausible explanation, they could become resentful and dangerous. I asked if claiming to be married and/or have kids would work, she said it wasn’t as effective and you ultimately needed female allies anyway. She also said that actual lesbians would pretend to “date” hetero women in order to protect them. She kind of described it as leveraging the power of rumors.

    I told her it sounded a lot like what happens in prison. She said in some ways, it was a prison.

    • ComputerSagtNein@lemm.ee
      3383·
      1 year ago

      Only possible if you do an all female mission imo.

      All male mission -> they kill each other

      Mixed mission -> they kill the women and probably themselves after

      Edit: Lmao lots of insecure men around here.

          • babeuh@lemmy.worldEnglish
            11·
            1 year ago

            I found this study about the differences (but it’s from 2014, please tell me if you find a more recent one) The Impact of Sex and Gender on Adaptation to Space: Executive Summary.

            TL;DR female astronauts have, according to the study:

            • a higher risk of cancer (a 45-year-old man has a 344-day limit in space to be safe versus a 187-day limit for a 45-year-old woman)
            • more orthostatic intolerance
            • more UTIs (which makes sense as women on earth are also more likely to have UTIs)
            • less vision impairment compared to male astronauts (no clinically significant cases of VIIP syndrome)
            • less hearing problems (men show a more rapid decline in the left ear and in general like on Earth)


            Keep in mind that this data is not the best because only around 20% of people that had been on the ISS at the time were women and because male astronauts are more likely to come from a military background.

            • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.worldEnglish
              4·
              1 year ago

              less hearing problems (men show a more rapid decline in the left ear and in general as well)

              Did the study mention why the left ear was more of a problem?

              • babeuh@lemmy.worldEnglish
                7·
                1 year ago

                No, here is the relevant paragraph:

                Hearing sensitivity, when measured at most frequencies, declines much more rapidly in male astronauts than it does in female astronauts. These LSAH derived data represent a wide age range of subjects (i.e., four decades) and show a more rapid decline in hearing in the left ear, for men only. Within the general population, hearing also declines more rapidly in men than in women, due in part to environmental factors or occupational exposure (e.g., construction or factory work). No evidence suggests that the sex-based hearing differences in the astronaut population are related to microgravity exposure, and the small sample size of female astronauts precludes making any definitive conclusions.

                • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  2·
                  1 year ago

                  Thanks. It’s so weird that it affects the left ear of men more. Love to know what makes the left ear more susceptible to damage than the right.

  • OceanSoap@lemmy.ml
    427·
    1 year ago

    Yeah, as a woman, I’d be real hesitant about taking a job out there, or any place thats more wild-west in nature (very few people and very lax regulation of any laws) and I’d sure as hell take gun tactical training before going, and always have a firearm on me.

  • xuxebiko@kbin.social
    28·
    1 year ago

    Buckingham was hired by PAE. Amentum didn’t respond to questions from the AP. Leidos Senior Vice President Melissa Lee Dueñas said it conducts background checks on all its employees.

    “Our stance on sexual harassment or assault couldn’t be more clear: we have zero tolerance for such behavior,” Dueñas said in an email. “Each case is thoroughly investigated.”

    Translates to 1) We thoroughly investigate and hire sexual predators and 2) We say this b.s. to protect our jobs, actually we have zero tolerance for those who complain about sexual harassment.

    The report made it clear that those in charge enable sexual predators.

  • vis4valentine@lemmy.ml
    263·
    1 year ago

    Being alone in the middle of a literal ice desert with a lot of male nerds so socially awkward that they rather be in the middle of an ice desert sounds like an absolute disaster.

  • lasagna@programming.dev
    20·
    1 year ago

    One of them carried a hammer held by her bra. Wild. The person in charge of this place should be facing criminal charges.

  • Ace0fBlades@lemmy.world
    0·
    1 year ago

    Makes you wonder what challenges women will face in future space exploration missions. Long periods of isolation with groups of coworkers with very little personal space. Not like a belligerent party can be ejected out the airlock (It’'ll probably happen who am I kidding)

    • theodewere@kbin.social
      1·
      1 year ago

      there’s no doubt that sexual predation would be a big issue and that women would be the first victims of any violence, but it’s just part of the greater concern over authority in such a small society… who is in charge, how are rules enforced and misbehavior punished… i’m not optimistic that a Mars outpost would be able to survive its own judicial system, for example… or any of the prepper compounds… they’re sort of all guaranteed to descend into really barbaric circumstances socially…

      • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
        1·
        1 year ago

        or any of the prepper compounds

        You wouldn’t want to be stuck for a long time in a society made up exclusively of people with severe anxiety and personal issues who reject society? I can’t imagine why.