Category Archives: Sexual Harassment

  #metoo in anthropology: a call for updating codes of conduct in the field

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Blog post by Lexie Onofrei

I am climbing a steep hill with my gatekeeper and an informant who’s taking us to an isolated farm to show us his animals. They’re both middle-aged men. It’s snowing heavily, and I can barely feel my feet; they are covered in snow. I’m told we will get to the animals soon and that we can rest there. I had been around these men for two days and it has never occurred to me that they could harm me. My gatekeeper is an old family friend and the informant is his friend. I conducted fieldwork in Romania, in the region that I know well, so most of the relationships I built there were based on trust. This is my experience, but it’s also how many ethnographies begin: a narrative that introduces the field, participants and the general atmosphere. As ethnographies go on, narratives expand, participants’ stories change, and new concepts are introduced. However, sexual harassment in the field is seldom brought up, even though it happens a lot. At most, it is interesting to study or to include in self-reflexive sections of a paper, but nothing more.

Recently, powerful men in the Hollywood and sports industries have been accused of sexual harassment. Some of the survivors reignited the flame of the #metoo movement, encouraging victims of abuse to share their experiences on social media. The large scale of the accusations has prompted revisions of social and workplace rules to ensure that sexual harassment is minimised. Given the high rate of sexual harassment in the field, the American Anthropology Association (AAA) started a working group to understand this phenomenon in the field and academia. It tries to reconcile fieldwork practices with guidelines to promote the safety of fieldworkers, especially of women, because of their disproportionate risk of exposure to sexual violence. Most anthropologists are expected to do fieldwork at some point in their career. We are encouraged to think through our plan of action and anticipate things that might go wrong in the field in ethical clearance forms. However, few of these hypothetical measures satisfy the condition of our safety as researchers in the field. Instead, they are heavily bureaucratised and often

 

Conversation between my informant and I during my ethnographic fieldwork in Romania, December 2016. Author’s collection.

serve universities’ own reputations and legal and insurance requirements (Sleeboom-Faulkner et al., 2017).

The article that the AAA working group published explains the co-creation of ethnographic fields by researchers, participants, and by invisible social structures and ideas like gender inequality, religiousness, etc. Although researchers represent organisations in the field, the physicality and closeness of fieldwork create complexities that are often hard to navigate, and in which female ethnographers can feel unsafe or vulnerable. Ethnographers ask the questions, lead discussions and question habits of different societies. Therefore, ethical guidelines are directed towards the protection, anonymity and reassurance of participants. However, ethnographic curiosity about certain idea/social group makes us vulnerable, too. Plus, gender dimensions and non-human components of fieldwork have been overlooked in ethical guidelines. More attention to their role in the power politics of fieldwork could improve research conditions and keep more women in anthropological careers.

One of my anthropology teachers recounted how she felt cornered during a field interview in a participant’s house. She was speaking to a man whose wife died. He started crying and leant on my teacher’s shoulder, getting closer and closer to her until she felt unsafe. She left immediately, as she luckily found the door of the house open. In Friction, Anna Tsing (2004) tells of her fear of aggression as she sat in the back of a truck full of men in Indonesia. Tsing’s story only hints at these issues of vulnerability, and most anthropologists are deterred from making this step. Self-reflexivity is a strong research tool, but it is often critiqued for its narcissistic tendencies (Finlay, 2002). Furthermore, harassment is not reported due to lack of extended codes of conduct, as these are theoretically rich but hard to put into practice.

In conclusion, it’s worth acknowledging the advent of self-reflexivity in ethnographies as coping mechanisms, but this postponed the need to develop ethical guidelines. Sometimes anthropologists indulge in confessional ethnographies, without referring to their experiences of harassment, but where they can ponder on their feelings. The AAA working group urges universities to revisit and update codes of conduct. Gatekeepers and key informants could have more active roles to ensure the integrity of researchers is protected. There could be more communication between researchers, their supervisors and ethical committees. This initiative has the potential to over-formalise fieldwork but if we work together, this detail can be corrected and improved to aid fieldworkers in their research. AAA’s work is a big step towards recognising the gender-specific dangers of fieldwork, but this movement needs to be replicated by anthropologists in universities worldwide, otherwise it will remain weak and fragmented.

It’s Time for Them to Open Their Eyes: The Problem of Sporting Governing Bodies and Their Ignorance Towards Sexual Harassment

Blog post by Katie Layley

The sad truth is that sexual harassment is happening all over the world in many different circumstances. The knowledge of it is growing within society as more people are telling their story. Many sexual harassment cases that have happened in nightclubs, within the acting world and in offices can be seen in the media and research papers. However, until recent years there has been little media coverage and research into sexual harassment in the sport world. Due to the increase in coverage about sexual harassment in sport, ordinary people in everyday life are acknowledging that it can happen in sport and recognise that something needs to be done about it. The cases that have been covered in the media over the past few years have focused on elite sport cases. However, research suggests that sexual harassment happens in every sport, at all ages, levels of sport, and any gender. It is important that we start to recognise that sexual harassment can happen to anyone, both amateur and professional sportspeople.

Sexual harassment comes in many forms. It can include sexually oriented comments or innuendos, taunting about the body, intimidating sexual remarks, unwanted physical contact and the domination of one person over another during meetings and training sessions. Sexual abuse is a form of sexual harassment that tends to include physical contact and violation, including groping, indecent exposure, rape, forced sexual activity, sexual assault, and physical or sexual violence.

 

As stated previously, sexual harassment can affect the lives of people who take part in sport regardless of their sporting attributes. The cases that get the most media coverage are ones involving elite sportspeople, or cases where hundreds of people have been affected. These high profile cases help to ensure that the perpetrators receive the correct punishment. The shocking reality is that the smaller cases are often ignored or not taken seriously by the sports organisations and therefore not passed onto the authorities. This means the victims never get justice for the horrendous experiences that they have been through at the hands of someone they should have been able to trust.

In many instances in sport the perpetrator is often someone in a position of authority. Does the power imbalance between them facilitate the abusive actions of an individual? It is likely that they use their authority to convince the athletes that what is happening is right, especially where the athletes are much younger. An example of this is Haleema Rafiq, a former cricketer at Multan Cricket Club, who accused the chairman of the club of demanding sexual favours but was not believed by those who she reported it to. This case unfortunately ended with Haleema committing suicide, showing just how much of an effect the constant harassment from a powerful figure, and the ignorance of authorities, can have over someone who has experienced it. In some cases the sport governing bodies state they have no knowledge of incidents that have happened, and do not even know about cases that have been taken to court over sexual harassment. For example, Lucy Ward, a former Leeds United footballer, won a case against her former employers for sexual harassment, but the FA claimed they had not heard about the case. This demonstrates how governing bodies do not always understand or correctly address issues relating to sexual harassment in their sports.

 

A large case in recent years is that of Larry Nassar, the former US gymnastic team doctor. In the past two years over 100 females have reported cases of sexual harassment and abuse from him that have happened over the past two decades. Many of these women were too scared to tell anyone as they thought they might not be believed. USA Gymnastics acted as soon as it became a high profile case and Nassar has since been charged with other cases as well as linked to allegations from the gymnasts.

 

Governing bodies must acknowledge that sexual harassment does happen. The IOC has created guidelines so sports can see what counts as sexual harassment and how to protect against it, but more needs to be done. It should not be acceptable for victims to suffer in silence, and for this silence to be the safest option for them. Governing bodies must work with their staff and participants to ensure a safe environment for them to work together in.