MicroWaveAug 27, 2023

Women working in Antarctica say they were left to fend for themselves against sexual harassers

https://lemmy.world/post/3946173

Women working in Antarctica say they were left to fend for themselves against sexual harassers - Lemmy.world

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.

Show threadAce0fBladesAug 27, 2023
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)
Show threadrambarooAug 28, 2023

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.

Show threadbabeuh

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:

  • more cancer (45-year-old man has a 344-day limit 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
  • less hearing problems (men show a more rapid decline in the left ear and in general as well)


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 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).

The Impact of Sex and Gender on Adaptation to Space: Executive Summary

This review article is a compendium of six individual manuscripts, a Commentary, and an Executive Summary. This body of work is entitled “The Impact of Sex and Gender on Adaptation to Space” and was developed in response to a recommendation ...

PubMed Central (PMC)
Aug 28, 2023 at 8:15pmWeb