Landmark report calls on US universities to take action on sexual harassment

The US National Academies has concluded that current policies to address sexual harassment in academic science, engineering and medicine have failed. It is no recommending that universities and federal funding agencies go further to root out the problem of harassment. The organisation, which is itself under fire for failing to root out sexual harassment from within its own ranks, says such behaviour can damage the integrity of research as much as scientific misconduct.

Prompted by concerns that sexual harassment at research universities is eroding the US’s pipeline of female scientists, the National Academies launched its study two years ago. The resulting report, released on Tuesday, criticises the policies normally used to handle sexual harassment in university science departments and labs as merely aiming for symbolic compliance with the law to avoid liability.