Dear senior astrophysicists, physicists, and planetary scientists, including observatory directors, project leaders, program administrators, and department chairs:
In recent months a litany of harassment cases in our community have come to light. In all of those cases, senior members of the community were documented to have caused extensive and direct harm to some of our most vulnerable members. Troublingly, the public cases are only a small fraction of those that currently afflict our community; for every case of harassment publicly revealed, many, many more go uninvestigated or even unreported. For example, although we know there are many instances of racial harassment and harassment of people with disabilities in our community, those problems remain largely undiscussed and hidden. The entire situation is unacceptable.
Many members of the community are discussing the situation and striving to find ways to change it, but change will not occur without the vital involvement of those in positions of power and influence. Thus we call on you, our senior members, to enact the reforms necessary to put an end to the ongoing harassment of disabled people; members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community; people of color; women; and other underrepresented minorities.
Harassment has too often been met with inadequate and problematic responses from those in power. The vast majority of institutions have remained eerily quiet on the subject, and many senior scientists and community leaders have shown great reluctance to engage with any real, meaningful change. When action has been taken at all, it has largely been only after bad press made it clear that the harassment could no longer be ignored. Before outside pressure is applied, administrators frequently show little willingness to hold harassers, especially those in senior positions, responsible for the harm they have done. When an investigation does occur and finds someone guilty of violating an institution’s policies, the punitive measures taken often are too meager to encourage reform or to redress the harm that has been done to the victims and to the broader community. Instead we have seen the harassers afforded various means of protection.
Senior members have, in words and actions, treated the harassers as victims without acknowledging the destructive effects of their behavior, and they have simultaneously dismissed as troublemakers the victims and allies who report abuse. When abuse is called out, responses often include special pleading that the abuse was committed by “only” a small number of scientists, a problematic response that derails discussion about reform and excuses most of the community from our common responsibility to enact change. This culture and type of discussion hampers action and enables abuse.
The status quo is intolerable and represents a failure of leadership.
It is vitally important that senior members of the community demonstrate strong leadership on this issue. It is not the sole responsibility of victims or junior members of the community to solve the problem, but time and again it has fallen on just those people to do the labor of supporting and fighting for the health, safety, and well-being of the vulnerable. True reform requires buy-in and support from members of the community at all levels, and most critically at the senior level.
The situation as it stands has had a disastrous effect on the community and on the production of scientific knowledge. Many talented scientists, scholars, and promising students have already left the field due to experiences with harassment. With them go all their hard work and creative insights that could have contributed to scientific progress. If our current climate of harassment remains unchanged, we stand to lose a great deal, both personally and professionally, in our field. It is imperative that you, the leaders of our community, change the climate to one where all are truly welcomed and given an equal chance to flourish.
We call on senior leaders in astrophysics, physics, and planetary science to do the following:
Do all you can to protect the victims of harassment.
Do your due diligence to research and understand the problems regarding harassment and their solutions.
Instead of just working to do the minimum required by law, work to create the best possible environment for all.
Call out behavior that promotes harassment, even if it is not illegal. Intervene to protect vulnerable members of the community.
Make sure your antiharassment policies are concisely worded with clear definitions, reporting procedures, and consequences.
Take your own antiharassment policies seriously and enact the disciplinary actions that are a part of them.
Remove harassers from positions of power or venues where they can continue to harass, and do not allow them to be passed between positions or institutions.
Stop collaborating with harassers and their enablers.
Stop appointing harassers and enablers to positions of power.
We have the potential to build a better, healthier, and ultimately more productive community, but to do that we need senior leaders to commit to enforcing standards of acceptable behavior that support the equitable treatment of all people in our community.
A version of this letter has been signed, as of this writing, by 393 scientists from around the world. For a full list of signatures, see https://sites.google.com/site/openlettertoseniorscience.
