A new survey of sexual harassment among U.S. oncologists has found that 70% reported incidents from peers and/or supervisors in the previous 12 months.
The incidence was higher among women than men (80% vs. 56%), a difference that was statistically significant (P < .0001).
However, after experiencing sexual harassment from coworkers, men and women were alike in terms of reporting similarly negative outcomes in mental health, sense of safety, and turnover intentions (e.g., leaving or quitting).
“Our findings demonstrate that the impact of sexual harassment on both men and women is tangible and is not different,” said lead author Ishwaria Subbiah, MD, a medical oncologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, during her presentation of the study on June 5 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2021. The meeting was held virtually because of the pandemic.
“The survey’s recall period [about harassment] was in the previous 12 months. The respondents weren’t reflecting on a lifetime of events,” Dr. Subbiah said in an interview. “That’s part of what makes the findings that much more sobering.”
The release of the survey results roughly coincided with a furor within oncology circles over details that have now come to light about Axel Grothey, MD, a high-profile medical oncologist who was forced out of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., after having unethical sexual relations with mentees – only to move on to another major center with more mentees.
The new survey, which included 153 women and 118 men, was conducted in 2020.
Overall, 69% of respondents reported gender-based harassment, 17% reported unwanted sexual attention, and 3% reported sexual coercion from peers/supervisors. For the three types of sexual harassment, women reported higher rates of incidence; the greatest proportional disparity was in unwanted sexual attention (22% of women vs. 9% of men).
The types of sexual harassment are defined in a landmark 2018 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Gender harassment is nonverbal or verbal behaviors that are hostile, objectifying, and excluding of or conveying second-class status about a gender. Unwanted sexual attention is advances, including touching, and seeking a sexual relationship despite discouragement. Sexual coercion involves seeking compliance with sexual demands by making job-related threats or promising job-related benefits.
The commonality in the three harassments is their being “unwanted,” Dr. Subbiah explained.
Another commonality is that “sexual harassment is a tool of power that one person yields over another,” commented Marina Stasenko, MD, a gynecologic oncologist at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center.
Dr. Stasenko led a 2018 study that found that 64% of U.S. gynecologic oncologists reported sexual harassment during training or practice, a much longer recall period than the 1 year in Dr. Subbiah’s study.
However, things may be changing regarding sexual harassment – at least in terms of victims speaking out, said Dr. Stasenko. Perhaps discussing personal experience “is becoming less taboo,” she told this news organization. “The media spotlight on sexual harassment within medicine has been bright [recently].”
That was borne out last week – a number of oncologists who had been harassed told their stories on Twitter in reaction to the report about Dr. Grothey at one of America’s top medical centers. Also, in another sign of the moment, an academic oncologist publicly said that rumors about Dr. Grothey were long-standing. “Heard from many colleagues that this behavior was known in the field and went on for years. Years,” tweeted Charu Aggarwal, MD, MPH, from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Other outcomes seem to make Dr. Grothey’s behavior at Mayo, which multiple oncologists said has occurred at every center, a watershed moment. Namely, he has been muted or dismissed by an array of organizations since the story broke.
ASCO disallowed Dr. Grothey from making presentations at the annual meeting (he was an author on 12 studies), the National Cancer Institute removed him from his position as co-chair of an influential steering committee that helps determine grant funding for research, and the OneOncology community care network dropped him as medical director of their research arm, as reported by The Cancer Letter. He was also removed from the OncoAlert Network, a global network of oncology professionals, and from the medical advisory board of Fight CRC, an advocacy group for patients with colorectal cancer, as reported by this news organization. His current employer, West Cancer Center, in Germantown, Tennessee, has also started an investigation.
In her presentation, Dr. Subbiah acknowledged a changing landscape, with “increasing attention in recent years” to sexual harassment thanks to the “broader cultural movements” of #metoo and #TIMESUP social media–based campaigns.
Another oncologist nodded to the recent news about Dr. Grothey at the Mayo Clinic and suggested Dr. Subbiah’s study was part of a historic struggle for equity for women. “Sadly, both timely and timeless,” tweeted medical oncologist Tatiana Prowell, MD, of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, about the new study.