ABSTRACT

We find that certain types of sexual harassment predict a negative sense of belonging and exacerbate the imposter phenomenon. The types of sexual harassment that predict these outcomes, both forms of gender harassment, while seemingly less severe types of harassment, have been found to have substantially negative personal and professional consequences. These findings are important since prior work has found that sense of belonging and the imposter phenomenon are related to students’ persistence in STEM fields. Our results have implications for understanding and improving persistence in physics by informing the community about the occurrence of sexual harassment and its effects so that we can begin to work towards reducing its occurrence and mitigating its effects.

To read more, please go to: 

• Viewpoint: Yes, Sexual Harassment Still Drives Women Out of Physics
  Julie Libarkin, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Michigan State University, Michigan, USA
  https://physics.aps.org/articles/v12/43
  
  
• Sexual harassment reported by undergraduate female physicists
  Lauren M. Aycock, Zahra Hazari, Eric Brewe, Kathryn B. H. Clancy, Theodore Hodapp, and Renee Michelle Goertzen
  Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 15, 010121 – Published 22 April 2019
  https://journals.aps.org/prper/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.15.010121