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.

  • xuxebiko@kbin.social
    1113·
    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.

  • Ace0fBlades@lemmy.world
    89·
    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)

    • IverCoder@lemm.ee
      492·
      1 year ago

      Not like a belligerent party can be ejected out the airlock

      a m o g u s

    • theodewere@kbin.social
      383·
      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
        31·
        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.

        • theodewere@kbin.social
          13·
          1 year ago

          i’m pretty sure they’re all guaranteed nightmare scenarios… i think people build them just for the drama… so they’re all drama queens on top of it…

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
        417·
        1 year ago

        Not any violence. Men are the vast majority of murder and assault victims in the West, I don’t have data for undeveloped countries. Makes sense when you realize we all had “you never hit a woman” beaten into us. Even criminals would rather harm a man than a woman.

    • rambaroo@lemmy.world
      3519·
      1 year ago

      Future missions should be all-women teams. Problem solved.

      Women eat less, use less oxygen, and weigh less than men. There’s actually no logical reason to send male astronauts anywhere.

      Edit: lol @ the downvotes with zero responses

      • Gigan@lemmy.world
        51·
        1 year ago

        Nah that’s misandrist bullshit. We’ve done plenty of all-male space missions and they had no issues.

      • babeuh@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        There are reasons to do that, women and men react differently to long-term microgravity.

        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 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 as well, but this is the case on Earth too)


        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 of the study were women and because male astronauts are more likely to come from a military background.

        I personally think this means we should send an equal amount of both sexes (maybe more women as it would help get more data on the differences). Sending all-men or all-women missions sadly won’t fully solve the problem as sexual assault isn’t always between men and women, that said, it is less common so it’s not a bad idea.

        Anyways, more investigation is required. If you find a newer/better study please tell me (or if something I wrote is inaccurate), I don’t want to spread misinformation

      • Syrc@lemmy.world
        314·
        1 year ago

        Sure, weight is definitely a more important factor than idk, reaction ability in danger situations or physical resistance to unfriendly environments.

        • Sorrowl@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          10·
          1 year ago

          Yes, it is. On a long mission, even a few kg can have big differences in fuel consumption. Also the mean difference of reaction times between men and women is around 20-30ms, which is miniscule. Idk about the differences in resistance to space, but I highly doubt that men are significantly more resistant than women.

          • cone_zombie@lemmy.world
            2·
            1 year ago

            Why is 20-30ms “miniscule”, but “a few kgs” compared to the weight of a fucking spacecraft isn’t?

          • Syrc@lemmy.world
            24·
            1 year ago

            I’m not saying men are better than women in those aspects. I’m saying a very limited amount of people, both men and women, have the physical and mental fortitude to withstand a space mission, and there is virtually never going to be a situation where two people have the exact same qualifications and weight has to be the “tiebreaker”. It’s pretty much a non-factor.

    • chakan2@lemmy.world
      31·
      1 year ago

      I have a feeling people picked for those types of missions will be vetted harder than “Hey, want to see some snow”

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
      117·
      1 year ago

      Just FYI that username may get you some hostility. It’s far too close to Ace of Bass which is a band from the 90s that were neo-nazis. The Base of Aces was a Nazi submarine base in WW2. I’m not assuming anything here, the lead singer and guitarist both confirmed separately that was what their band name was referring to, just before they lost all their fans.

  • ghostBones@lemmy.world
    75·
    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.

  • lasagna@programming.dev
    64·
    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.

    • Skyrmir@lemmy.world
      172·
      1 year ago

      That’s just stupid, they have ice climbing picks that would hang far more comfortably from a belt. And be easier to reach when needed.

  • OceanSoap@lemmy.ml
    668·
    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.

    • ColorcodedResistor@lemm.ee
      27133·
      1 year ago

      But that narrative doesn’t support the anti gun ideology. they want everyone disarmed so the strong can once again shuffle the weak in any direction they choose. it makes them so mad that they have to think twice about sexual assault or else they get blown away. its like a condom, those convincing you that you don’t need one, means you really really need one.

      edit: so mad 😎

      triple digit mad lets fucking Goooooo! 🤣

      Your downvotes mean you like women undefended and unprotected. that’s kinda sorta a bunch fucked up. please find peace in your lives where you aren’t afraid of guns because you just want to rape unopposed.

      what’s the slow down? Let’s hit 4 digi mad!

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        2915·
        1 year ago

        Oh yes, how they shuffle the weak in the UK and Australia. Just weak people being shuffled around by the strong all over the place.

            • soursugar@lemm.ee
              176·
              1 year ago

              And making his way into the ring, weighing a steady 350 pounds after training on Stardew Valley, vegan Oreos and Mountain Dew, it’s The Agenda Pusher!

              Here to derail any meaningful conversation on any topic and make it all about his pet political issue, he’ll topple you with his signature move, The Forum Slide, where in one post he’ll turn any discussion into a shit-flinging flame war where everyone will forget what they were originally talking about in the first place!

              cue theme music

              cue applause

              • dangblingus@lemmy.world
                1015·
                1 year ago

                2A propaganda. “Anti Gun Ideology”? That’s not something being discussed anywhere in the US. There is no anti-gun ideology. Some people just want it to be harder for criminals and mental health patients to acquire full auto rifles. Generally the 2nd amendment chest beaters only come out after mass shootings, of which there were like 3 this past weekend. So while you didn’t mention dead kids, that is the general outcome of Republican obstructionism on all issues related to 2A.

      • soursugar@lemm.ee
        1410·
        1 year ago

        edit: so mad 😎

        They get mad when reality disagrees with them. Big mad. As in to say most of the time

      • zefiax@lemmy.world
        12·
        1 year ago

        Your downvotes mean you like women undefended and unprotected. that’s kinda sorta a bunch fucked up. please find peace in your lives where you aren’t afraid of guns because you just want to rape unopposed.

        LOL. no, it doesnt.

      • Slotos@feddit.nl
        1013·
        1 year ago

        She specifically said “training”, which on its own immediately goes against whatever insane ideology you’re selling.

  • vis4valentine@lemmy.ml
    243·
    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.

    • ComputerSagtNein@lemm.ee
      01·
      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.

    • El Barto@lemmy.world
      523·
      1 year ago

      Bro. I’m a man. I have hormones. I also know how to control them.

      “Men will be men” is an unfair generalization.

    • xuxebiko@kbin.social
      24·
      1 year ago

      men will apparently just be men.

      this thinking removes the sexual harasser’s & rapist’s responsibility for their crimes and moves it to their gender/DNA.

      When criminal conduct is enabled, crime will escalate.

        • xuxebiko@kbin.social
          714·
          1 year ago

          Yes! It absolves men of their responsibility to make their society/community safe and it ensures that if they become a problem then other men will not stop them.

    • SevFTW@feddit.de
      0·
      1 year ago

      “Men will be men” just excuses the behaviour and ostracizes men who don’t do these things. It has less to do with their sex and more to do with how we raise men.

      Toxic masculinity as a defence mechanism of patriarchal society is the main problem and “feminine”, “emotional” or “weak” men, or those not subscribing to heteronormative sexuality are targeted by the same types to uphold their status.