So, here's the article this is taken from which I'd suggest you read because it says a LOT of stuff about women in STEM fields and so on, and talks a bit about how the whole "well women get married and have children" thing isn't particularly relevant as the imbalances still apply to unmarried childless women: http://www.autostraddle.com/a-stagge...ldwork-252478/
Now, let's take a look at this...
They asked a bunch of people about harassment, and 666 people responded. Of the people who responded, 77.5% were women. 70% of women and 40% of men reported experiencing sexual harassment while conducting field research. 26% of women and 6% of men reported sexual assault (defined as “unwanted physical contact”). Here are some graphs taken from the article:
So, women are harassed and assaulted more often than men, but when men are harassed or assaulted it tends to come form a peer or someone underneath them on the food chain, where with women it tends to be from their superiors which as the article suggests, hints at power imbalances and so on. It's pretty easy to see how a culture of being preyed upon by your superiors is going to discourage women from entering these kinds of fields.
There's also a pretty big case here for teaching people, and particularly men, how to go about reporting these things, and needing better systems in place to resolve cases when they are reported particularly (in both cases) when the harassment or assault happens in the field rather than on campus. It's also worth nothing that men are less likely to talk about these things, even in surveys and studies and stuff, than women are.
Anyway, pretty serious implications for women in STEM fields. What do you think? How can this be resolved / stamped out?