A new Viewpoint in the journal BioScience argues that gender-based and sexual violence (GBSV) in ecological fieldwork should be understood not as a series of isolated incidents but as a structural problem rooted in how field research is organized, with broad consequences for the knowledge that such research produces.
Author Eve Afonso (Université Marie et Louis Pasteur, CNRS) contends that the defining features of fieldwork—immersion, close quarters, physical demands, and dependence on senior colleagues—can heighten vulnerability while weakening typical protections. She notes that "the very features that make fieldwork scientifically valuable (i.e., immersion, proximity, interdependence) are also those that can weaken ordinary protective mechanisms."
Afonso synthesizes existing evidence about fieldwork, citing survey findings that a majority of women report harassment during academic fieldwork and that negative experiences are often compounded for women of color, LGBTQ+ researchers, and disabled scientists.
Afonso further argues that these dynamics distort research itself: "When some researchers are effectively pushed out of fieldwork, those who remain gain disproportionate power to define research agendas and the geography of ecological knowledge." Sites and regions perceived as unsafe may be avoided, producing geographical gaps, while methods shift toward more controllable settings. Such distortions risk the reinforcement of existing structural biases in research.
The piece calls for prevention adapted to field conditions, including clear codes of conduct, reachable emergency contacts, attention to accommodation and transport arrangements, and the involvement of entire research teams, including supervisors and project leaders, to interdict abuse before it arises. Such measures, Afonso writes, do not treat fieldwork as inherently unsafe but, instead, recognize it as a distinct working environment, with particular requirements to ensure the safety of those who participate in it. The stakes, she concludes, extend to the discipline as a whole: "When participation is uneven, knowledge is too."
The Viewpoint is available in BioScience: https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biag107
