The National Science Foundation, the federal agency that oversees the U.S. Antarctic Program, published a report in 2022 in which 59% of women said they’d experienced harassment or assault while on the ice, and 72% of women said such behavior was a problem in Antarctica.

But the problem goes beyond the harassment, The Associated Press found. In reviewing court records and internal communications, and in interviews with more than a dozen current and former employees, the AP uncovered a pattern of women who said their claims of harassment or assault were minimized by their employers, often leading to them or others being put in further danger.

  • Ace0fBlades@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Makes you wonder what challenges women will face in future space exploration missions. Long periods of isolation with groups of coworkers with very little personal space. Not like a belligerent party can be ejected out the airlock (It’'ll probably happen who am I kidding)

    • IverCoder@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Not like a belligerent party can be ejected out the airlock

      a m o g u s

    • theodewere@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      there’s no doubt that sexual predation would be a big issue and that women would be the first victims of any violence, but it’s just part of the greater concern over authority in such a small society… who is in charge, how are rules enforced and misbehavior punished… i’m not optimistic that a Mars outpost would be able to survive its own judicial system, for example… or any of the prepper compounds… they’re sort of all guaranteed to descend into really barbaric circumstances socially…

      • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        or any of the prepper compounds

        You wouldn’t want to be stuck for a long time in a society made up exclusively of people with severe anxiety and personal issues who reject society? I can’t imagine why.

        • theodewere@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          i’m pretty sure they’re all guaranteed nightmare scenarios… i think people build them just for the drama… so they’re all drama queens on top of it…

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Not any violence. Men are the vast majority of murder and assault victims in the West, I don’t have data for undeveloped countries. Makes sense when you realize we all had “you never hit a woman” beaten into us. Even criminals would rather harm a man than a woman.

    • rambaroo@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Future missions should be all-women teams. Problem solved.

      Women eat less, use less oxygen, and weigh less than men. There’s actually no logical reason to send male astronauts anywhere.

      Edit: lol @ the downvotes with zero responses

      • Gigan@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Nah that’s misandrist bullshit. We’ve done plenty of all-male space missions and they had no issues.

      • babeuh@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        There are reasons to do that, women and men react differently to long-term microgravity.

        I found this study about the differences (but it’s from 2014, please tell me if you find a more recent one) The Impact of Sex and Gender on Adaptation to Space: Executive Summary.

        TL;DR female astronauts have, according to the study:

        • a higher risk of cancer (a 45-year-old man has a 344-day limit in space versus a 187-day limit for a 45-year-old woman)
        • more orthostatic intolerance
        • more UTIs (which makes sense as women on earth are also more likely to have UTIs)
        • less vision impairment compared to male astronauts (no clinically significant cases of VIIP syndrome)
        • less hearing problems (men show a more rapid decline in the left ear and in general as well, but this is the case on Earth too)


        Keep in mind that this data is not the best because only around 20% of people that had been on the ISS at the time of the study were women and because male astronauts are more likely to come from a military background.

        I personally think this means we should send an equal amount of both sexes (maybe more women as it would help get more data on the differences). Sending all-men or all-women missions sadly won’t fully solve the problem as sexual assault isn’t always between men and women, that said, it is less common so it’s not a bad idea.

        Anyways, more investigation is required. If you find a newer/better study please tell me (or if something I wrote is inaccurate), I don’t want to spread misinformation

      • Syrc@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Sure, weight is definitely a more important factor than idk, reaction ability in danger situations or physical resistance to unfriendly environments.

        • Sorrowl@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          Yes, it is. On a long mission, even a few kg can have big differences in fuel consumption. Also the mean difference of reaction times between men and women is around 20-30ms, which is miniscule. Idk about the differences in resistance to space, but I highly doubt that men are significantly more resistant than women.

          • cone_zombie@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Why is 20-30ms “miniscule”, but “a few kgs” compared to the weight of a fucking spacecraft isn’t?

          • KSP Atlas@sopuli.xyz
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            1 year ago

            I would assume a manned mission would have larger tolerances due to the unpredictability of humans and to ensure their safety

          • Syrc@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’m not saying men are better than women in those aspects. I’m saying a very limited amount of people, both men and women, have the physical and mental fortitude to withstand a space mission, and there is virtually never going to be a situation where two people have the exact same qualifications and weight has to be the “tiebreaker”. It’s pretty much a non-factor.

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      if the comments are any indication it’ll be filled with victim blamers and predators. No one can hear you scream in space means a little something extra with sexual assaulters literally on the loose. do you even engineer for a brig in space? they’d likely fill the space for food, water, fuel…There is a reason for the U.S. navy not letting women in submarines and it ain’t because of a monthly period.

    • chakan2@lemmy.world
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      I have a feeling people picked for those types of missions will be vetted harder than “Hey, want to see some snow”

      • ColorcodedResistor@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        “you wanna be shot millions of miles from society where the nearest call for help would require another monumental operation to launch and by then it’ll be like coming up on the Event Horizon Ship after everyone went bonkers.?” -( slaps intergalactic space ships hood a couple of times to show you how sturdy she is)

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Just FYI that username may get you some hostility. It’s far too close to Ace of Bass which is a band from the 90s that were neo-nazis. The Base of Aces was a Nazi submarine base in WW2. I’m not assuming anything here, the lead singer and guitarist both confirmed separately that was what their band name was referring to, just before they lost all their fans.