NEWS: Asutralia
Sexual harassment is rampant at Antarctic expedition camps

Women working at Australian research camps in Antarctica have reported widespread sexual harassment

Women work­ing at Aus­tralian research camps in Antarc­ti­ca have report­ed wide­spread sex­u­al harassment.

The book pro­vides evi­dence of phys­i­cal con­tact of unin­vit­ed guests, requests for sex, and preda­to­ry cul­tures that tol­er­ate pornog­ra­phy on walls and sex­u­al teasing.

They also felt that women had to hide their peri­ods and be giv­en tam­pons and pads because of the many restrictions.

Author­i­ties con­demned the find­ings and promised to bring about cul­tur­al change.

Aus­trali­a’s Envi­ron­ment Min­is­ter Tanya Pri­vasek said she was “shocked” by the inde­pen­dent review of the Aus­tralian Antarc­tic Author­i­ty’s (AAD) facil­i­ty. This review was ini­ti­at­ed fol­low­ing a com­plaint from an individual.

“As a min­is­ter, I will not tol­er­ate sex­u­al harass­ment in my work­place,” Pri­vate­sek told the Aus­tralian Broad­cast­ing Cor­po­ra­tion (ABC).

Aus­trali­a’s Antarc­tic Obser­va­to­ry is locat­ed on the east­ern­most tip of the con­ti­nent and includes the Casey, Davis and Maw­son laboratories.

In the sum­mer, an expe­di­tionary force of 500 peo­ple is sent, but in the win­ter, it is reduced to the extent that about 15 to 30 key per­son­nel enter the camp. Doc­tors, cooks, fore­men, etc., these work­ers often live on the sta­tion for a year.

The author of the report, Pro­fes­sor Mered­ith Nash of the Aus­tralian Nation­al Uni­ver­si­ty, said: “Women in camps feel that the remote and iso­lat­ed envi­ron­ment makes it impos­si­ble to escape or find imme­di­ate help. “It has said.

They “have to work in camps with their per­pe­tra­tors for weeks because they can’t leave,” they told ABC, which first report­ed the find­ings on Friday.

“Or, because of the pow­er strug­gle, she is not in a sit­u­a­tion where she is as ready to com­plain or get help as she is in her own coun­try,” she added.

The report also found a cul­ture of homo­pho­bia in male-dom­i­nat­ed sec­tors, not­ing that peo­ple were afraid to speak out because they did­n’t want to be exclud­ed from future exploration.

In such a male-dom­i­nat­ed envi­ron­ment, female sci­en­tists report­ed­ly felt pres­sured to hide their peri­ods for fear of male judgment.

The vouch­er appli­ca­tion sys­tem also ‘forces women to go through the gate­keep­ers to get free san­i­tary prod­ucts’, reflect­ing the poor­ly sup­port­ed camp infrastructure.

AAD Direc­tor Kim Ellis said it has already imple­ment­ed the report’s recommendations.

“We are deeply con­cerned about the expe­ri­ences of sex­u­al harass­ment, dis­crim­i­na­tion and exclu­sion that are being talked about in our workplaces.”

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