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Assessing sexual harassment policy communication and impact at sea
A white paper form of J. Winter’s Oregon State University Master of Science Project.Field research is a particularly precarious work setting in which gendered harassment is perpe-trated (Clancy et al., 2014). Ocean scientists rely on research vessels to access the field, and the marine sector has its own risks associated with it. Research has found that women experience sexual harassment while working at sea on cargo ships (Thomas, 2006; Pike et al., 2021), as cadets at the U.S. Merchant Mariner Academy (United States Merchant Marine Academy, 2015), and in other positions while working at sea (Women in Ocean Science C.I.C., 2021; Österman and Boström, 2022). Research vessels– a field site at sea– merge the associated risks of the marine sector and field research.
Multiple institutions own or operate research vessels, including state and federal agencies, universities and research institutes, and private foundations. In addition, any vessel, such as a commercial fishing vessel, may become a research vessel temporarily by being contracted for this purpose. This white paper is intended to better understand communication, training, implementation, and the experience of policies within the U.S. Academic Research Fleet (U.S. ARF), including Title IX and institution-specific harassment policies. The results presented here stem from a mixed methods study conducted in 2019-2021 that combined a survey of scientists and ship personnel who work onboard U.S. ARF vessels with semi-structured interviews of sexual harassment policymakers and those responsible for implementation of sexual harassment policy in the ocean sciences. We identify themes that have implications for the design and implementation of harassment policies at sea and provide the results of this study for the community within this white paper.
The U.S. ARF is comprised of federally-owned vessels that are operated by academic insti-tutions and consortiums. Formed in 1972, the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) is an organization of academic institutions and national laboratories, which includes U.S. ARF operating institutions, that seeks 1) to coordinate access to oceanographic research facilities including scheduling of ships within the U.S. ARF, 2) to review the current match of facilities to the needs of academic oceanographic programs, and 3) to foster support for academic oceanography (UNOLS Charter, adopted in December 2021). UNOLS does not have a mandate to create or enforce policies; however, UNOLS can influence an institution’s policy by providing an organizing structure to address community concerns. For example, the Maintaining an Environment of Respect Aboard Ships (MERAS) Committee aims to foster an environment of respect and cultivate an inclusive culture within the U.S. ARF by providing recommendations to the UNOLS community of vessel operators and users. MERAS was established in 2017 as a transition of the Pregnancy, Privacy, and Harassment Committee that first formed in 2015