Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Per That Sexual Harassment in Sciences Report

So a number of outlets have reported on the NAP report: Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. I have a few issues with the report and the way it has been reported on. Firstly, at almost 200 pages, I seriously doubt that most, if not all commentators have read the entire report. This is common in popular media so I'm not surprised. If one has read the report, in particular, the data collection portion, a few very important things should jump out at you:

First:

N=40? This is not representative of women in STEM. Period. You simply cannot have a N of 40 and make the claims that are made here. This is not to say that the incidences reported did not happen or are not serious, but that they are not representative of most women's experience in academia. Furthermore, since the reports are self reported with absolutely no attempts at verification or contacting the accused party there is no way to know if these incidents actually occurred in the manner the reporter said they did..

Second:

So 340 women responded. Out of those 65 were eligible. This would be around 20%. Again. 65 people is simply not representative. While 20% experiencing harassment is no laughing matter, it also shows that the vast majority (80%) have not and do not had "qualifying" experiences.

Third:

So 40 people were interviewed. 2 were black. I guess finding "qualified" blacks is hard all the way around eh...

Also, apparently you must believe in the current nonsense of "cis-gender" and all that shit. This is important because when they start talking about "harassment", those who are not in agreement with the current feminist cis this and LBG the other are in for a rough time. Perspective matters because:

Note the "sexist remarks" in regards to people who have gender identity dysphoria. NAP is pushing an agenda. If I'm not with the gender dysphoria bullshit and I say it, it's sexist. If you are WITH the gender dysphoria bullshit and you say it, then it is NOT sexist.

Secondly, who solicits jokes? No really. Who goes up to a co-worker and says: "hey you have permission to send me a joke." This is the passive-aggressive bullshit NAP is pushing here. You received an e-mail and you didn't care for the contents, while most everyone else did? OK. Reply-all: "Hey don't send me stuff like that. Thanks."

Done and done.

The unwanted touching thing. Definitely a no-no. Keep your hands to yourself. Fourth:

Please note the "was understood by researchers to constitute sexual harassment" part. There are not a few cases where people have been convinced they were sexually assaulted. This frequently occurs at "women's centers" and other such places. Sometimes it's a feminist friend who does the convincing. This is one of the growing "intervention" trends where third parties get to determine if something is harassment, etc. on behalf of someone else who is deemed to "uninformed" to understand that they are a victim. No researcher should be "determining" if someone was harassed. If the person did not think they were a victim, then they were not. Period. If a uninvited sexual joke was said and did not bother the interviewer, then she is not a victim of harassment no matter what the researcher thinks of it.
Fifth:

From one of the 2 black people:

Translation: I'm good with the gender dysphoria and I'm upset that the people I work with aren't good with it and aren't afraid to say so. This is harassment.

Again NAP is pushing an agenda. Sixth:

Schools and companies like to talk about how much they support women, minorities and whatnot. Awards are given out for this kind of stuff. The entire premise of this report is that more women are needed in STEM and certain attitudes and behaviors keep this from happening. But when a man works to increase women in STEM and talks about it he's a sexist pig. You cannot win with these folks. This is why I don't even try to appease these folks. Seriously. This guys statements is being considered harassment. Seventh:
Not with the gender dysphoria? Fired. At least they're letting us know what they intend for those of us who refuse to submit.

There were a lot of snippets from interviews. As stated earlier we have no way to verify the stories. Some of the interviewees were in the middle of proceedings, but there was no commentary on those who had gone through. Were any of these stories deemed unfounded (if reported)? Did the researchers assume that such a finding did not matter? We do not know. Many of the stories do not even include descriptions of the precipitating event. "It wouldn't happen to a male?" What wouldn't happen? What would a male be subject to that a female would not? There is no doubt that harassment does indeed happen. But being sympathetic to such victims does not negate doing due diligence when reporting on the matter.