I think that at the undergraduate and graduate levels, sexual harrassment
is quite rare. If a professor has harrassed a student, the news will
quickly spread throughout the student population. Usually no official
complaints are made, but the professor will notice that students will come
to his office in groups rather than alone. He usually gets the hint - but
by then it is too late. His bad reputation will be with him
until the day he retires even if he never harasses another student. This
system of curtailing harrassment would not be possible without the
cooperation of both male and female students. What makes it so successful
is that professors who might be tempted to sexually harrass someone will
also get the hint and resist temptation.
If a graduate student is harrassed by a supervisor, the situation is very
different. The student cannot file a complaint and cannot leave the lab.
But she can pass on the message to new students so that they can avoid the
lab. This will create a femaleless fl- ;-) lab. fl- labs seem to be very
rare.
Sexual harrassment by fellow students is usually the result of immaturity
and will cease when either another student or a supervisor teaches the
brats how to behave. 99% of the time such childish behaviour ends at about
age 14, but has been known to persist into the late 20's in some individuals.
Annette
P.S. Are all women who have time for a career and a family superhuman? I
am in graduate school and I barely have time to take care of myself (i.e.
my place looks like ground zero). If I were not single I think I would
have burned out by now. I have been told that after graduate school things
don't get better, they get worse. Is that true?
