Thanks for writing this, Kathy! You pointed out some things which I hadn’t really internalized yet, plus some statistics that I found surprising. I hope this sparks a good conversation.
As I see it, the case is basically:
(1) Rape & other forms of sexual violence, harrassment, etc. are common enough that we should expect them to be significantly hurting the effectiveness of the EA movement.
(2) Insofar as we think EA movement building is important (and it is), reducing sexual violence etc. in the EA movement in particular is also important. (from 1)
(3) Is it neglected? Yes; the EA movement hasn’t done much so far to deal with this. You are the first to seriously research it and write it up, for example.
(4) Is it tractable? Yes; lots of effort has been put towards reducing workplace sexual violence in the wider world; presumably some best practices have been found somewhere and with careful research we can identify and implement them. (You give many examples of possible interventions with research behind them)
(5) So we should do it. (from 2, 3, 4)
I’d be interested to see more work in particular on (4). What are some examples of communities that made significant progress in reducing the prevalence of sexual violence? Ideally we’d find examples of communities that were similar to us and made progress, and then do what they did.
I scoured Google Scholar for sexual violence reduction methods. I already included what I found in the article. It appears to me that workplaces don’t have anything better. I’m pretty sure managers just decide who to believe when someone is being accused, and just make a decision about which side to take. Some might investigate, but investigations would usually produce no evidence because this is sexual violence and it doesn’t leave much. Most issues just lead to a game of he-said-she-said that can’t be resolved.
I don’t see any reason to believe anyone has any better methods than what I found. This is not just because I didn’t find anything better while scouring Google Scholar, it’s because of what I’m seeing out there in the world. When I have reported sexual violence, there was no tried and true method to rely on. When I look at my Facebook feed, I see articles about celebrity survivors publicly accusing people, suggesting that they don’t have an evidence based method.
If you have an angle, great, please let me know if you find a well-researched method.
Thanks for writing this, Kathy! You pointed out some things which I hadn’t really internalized yet, plus some statistics that I found surprising. I hope this sparks a good conversation.
As I see it, the case is basically: (1) Rape & other forms of sexual violence, harrassment, etc. are common enough that we should expect them to be significantly hurting the effectiveness of the EA movement. (2) Insofar as we think EA movement building is important (and it is), reducing sexual violence etc. in the EA movement in particular is also important. (from 1) (3) Is it neglected? Yes; the EA movement hasn’t done much so far to deal with this. You are the first to seriously research it and write it up, for example. (4) Is it tractable? Yes; lots of effort has been put towards reducing workplace sexual violence in the wider world; presumably some best practices have been found somewhere and with careful research we can identify and implement them. (You give many examples of possible interventions with research behind them) (5) So we should do it. (from 2, 3, 4)
I’d be interested to see more work in particular on (4). What are some examples of communities that made significant progress in reducing the prevalence of sexual violence? Ideally we’d find examples of communities that were similar to us and made progress, and then do what they did.
I scoured Google Scholar for sexual violence reduction methods. I already included what I found in the article. It appears to me that workplaces don’t have anything better. I’m pretty sure managers just decide who to believe when someone is being accused, and just make a decision about which side to take. Some might investigate, but investigations would usually produce no evidence because this is sexual violence and it doesn’t leave much. Most issues just lead to a game of he-said-she-said that can’t be resolved.
I don’t see any reason to believe anyone has any better methods than what I found. This is not just because I didn’t find anything better while scouring Google Scholar, it’s because of what I’m seeing out there in the world. When I have reported sexual violence, there was no tried and true method to rely on. When I look at my Facebook feed, I see articles about celebrity survivors publicly accusing people, suggesting that they don’t have an evidence based method.
If you have an angle, great, please let me know if you find a well-researched method.