Astronomical Harassment

A long-term survey of women in astronomy reveals a sordid culture of discrimination and inequality in academia

- By Arianne Cohen. Illustration by Daphné Geisler

Two decades ago, Rachel Ivie attended a conference for women in astronomy in Pasadena, Calif. During a panel on gender demographics, she presented a series of charts depicting the dismal truth: Only 14% of astronomy faculty were female—a little more than half the rate for science and engineering overall. After the panel, several participants approached her to discuss why those numbers were so low when 60% of young astronomers at the time were women. “The question was, what’s going to happen to this big group?” says Ivie, a senior research fellow at the American Institute of Physics (AIP). “Why do women drop out?”

That question continued to nag Ivie, and a few years later she started a long-term study of gender roles in the field, sponsored by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and the AIP. She and her team have followed 1,300 graduate students since 2007, checking in again in 2013 and 2016, with further rounds possible. Some respondents now work outside academia, so the study sheds light on women’s experience beyond the confines of university astronomy or physics departments.

The initial idea was to investigate the myriad reasons women might ditch science careers. But when the data came back, Ivie and her collaborators were riveted by the responses to a question about sexual harassment and discrimination. “We felt that it was important to report on the nuance about where harassment happens, who’s doing it, and what power structure is being reinforced,” she says.