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

CHRISTCHURCH – The howling winds and perpetual darkness of the Antarctic iciness were easing to a frozen spring when mechanic Liz Monahon at McMurdo Station grabbed a hammer.

If the ones in rate weren’t going to give protection to her from the person she feared would kill her, she figured, she wanted to give protection to herself. It wasn’t like she may just break out. They were all caught there in combination at the ice.

So she stored the hammer together with her all the time, both looped into her Carhartt overalls or tucked into her sports activities bra.

“If he came anywhere near me, I was going to start swinging at him,” Monahon says. “I decided that I was going to survive.”

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Monahon, 35, is one of the ladies who say the remoted setting and macho tradition on the United States analysis middle in Antarctica have allowed sexual harassment and attack to flourish.

The National Science Foundation, the federal company that oversees the U.S. Antarctic Program, revealed a file in 2022 in which 59% of girls stated they’d skilled harassment or attack whilst at the ice, and 72% of girls stated such conduct was once an issue in Antarctica.

But the issue is going past the harassment, The Associated Press discovered. In reviewing courtroom information and interior communications, and in interviews with greater than a dozen present and previous workers, the AP uncovered a pattern of girls who stated their claims of harassment or attack were minimized through their employers, steadily main to them or others being put in additional threat.

In one case, a lady who reported a colleague had groped her was once made to paintings along him once more. In every other, a lady who instructed her employer she was once sexually assaulted was once later fired. Another lady stated that bosses on the base downgraded her allegations from rape to harassment. The AP usually does now not determine those that say they were sexually assaulted except they publicly determine themselves.

The lawsuits of violence didn’t prevent with the NSF file. Five months after its unlock, a lady at McMurdo instructed a deputy U.S. marshal that colleague Stephen Bieneman pinned her down and put his shin over her throat for a couple of minute whilst she desperately attempted to keep up a correspondence she couldn’t breathe.

Bieneman pleaded now not accountable to misdemeanor attack. He was once fired and despatched again to the U.S., courtroom paperwork display, and his trial is scheduled for November. His legal professional, Birney Bervar, stated in an electronic mail to the AP that it was once “horseplay” initiated through the lady and the proof didn’t make stronger “an assault of the nature and degree she described.”

The NSF file induced a Congressional investigation. In a written reaction to Congress this is contradicted through its personal emails, Leidos, the high contractor, stated it won “zero allegations” of sexual attack in Antarctica all over the 5 years finishing April 2022.

Kathleen Naeher, the executive running officer of the civil team at Leidos, instructed a congressional committee in December that they would set up peepholes on dorm room doorways, prohibit get entry to to grasp keys that would open more than one bedrooms, and provides groups in the sector an additional satellite tv for pc telephone.

Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., stated the proposed fixes left him flabbergasted.

“This should have been done before we sent anyone down to Antarctica,” he stated on the listening to.

Monahon and all however some of the staff quoted in this tale are talking publicly for the primary time. Trapped in one of the crucial far flung spots on Earth, the ladies say they were in large part compelled to fend for themselves.

“No one was there to save me but me,” Monahon says. “And that was the thing that was so terrifying.”

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Monahon believes she handiest escaped bodily hurt in Antarctica on account of her colleagues, now not control.

She met Zak Buckingham in 2021 at a lodge in Christchurch, New Zealand, the place McMurdo staff were quarantining against COVID-19 prior to going to Antarctica. It could be Monahon’s 2nd stint in Antarctica, a spot that had fascinated her since her youth part a global away in upstate New York.

At the lodge, Monahon says, male colleagues bothering her and a pal sponsored off when Buckingham — a plumber and novice boxer from Auckland, New Zealand — sat with them.

Buckingham, now 36, was once intimidating and somewhat wild, however humorous and fascinating. One evening, Monahon says, she and Buckingham attached.

What Monahon didn’t know was once that Buckingham had a historical past of what a pass judgement on described as alcohol-related legal offending in New Zealand.

Three months prior to deploying, Buckingham breached a coverage order taken out through his former companion and the mummy of his 3 youngsters, in accordance to courtroom information the AP received after petitioning a New Zealand pass judgement on. He’d texted his ex-partner challenging oral intercourse. She instructed him to prevent being irrelevant.

“No, I will not stop being inappropriate,” he’d answered, and demanded oral intercourse once more, in accordance to the pass judgement on’s findings. She once more instructed him to prevent. He answered, in accordance to the information: “You need to be f—– like a slut.”

Per week later, he despatched her 18 texts, courtroom information display. She warned him she’d name the police.

“Continue to threaten me and you’ll need to,” he’d answered.

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Antarctica’s ancient ice sheet and remoteness make it ideal for scientists studying the entirety from the earliest moments of the universe to adjustments in the planet’s local weather.

The inhabitants at McMurdo, the hub of U.S. operations, generally swells from 200-300 in the southern iciness to over 1,000 in the summer season. Typically, round 70% are males.

Funded and overseen through the NSF, the U.S. Antarctic Program is administered through a tangle of contractors and subcontractors, with billions of greenbacks at stake. Since 2017, Leidos has held the primary contract, now price over $200 million in step with yr. Subcontractor PAE, which employs most of the base’s staff, was once purchased remaining yr through the federal government products and services massive Amentum.

There isn’t any police presence or prison at McMurdo, and regulation enforcement falls to a sworn on-site deputy U.S. marshal.

Buckingham was once employed through PAE. Amentum didn’t reply to questions from the AP. Leidos Senior Vice President Melissa Lee Dueñas stated it conducts background exams on all its workers.

“Our stance on sexual harassment or assault couldn’t be more clear: we have zero tolerance for such behavior,” Dueñas stated in an electronic mail. “Each case is thoroughly investigated.”

The NSF and Leidos declined to solution questions on Buckingham or different instances. Leidos stated sharing explicit main points wasn’t all the time suitable or useful.

The NSF instructed the AP it stepped forward protection in Antarctica remaining yr. The company now calls for Leidos to in an instant file any vital well being and protection incidents, together with sexual attack and harassment, it stated in a observation. The NSF stated it additionally created an place of work to take care of such lawsuits, equipped a confidential sufferer’s suggest, and established a 24-hour helpline.

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On the ice, with restricted choices for socializing, many head to considered one of McMurdo’s two primary bars: Southern Exposure or Gallagher’s.

Neither has home windows, staff say, and they odor of frame scent and many years of stale beer that has seeped into the ground. In the summer season, when the solar shines all evening, other people stroll out of the bars and are dazzled through the sunshine.

One evening at Southern Exposure, Monahon instructed the AP, Buckingham started guffawing with pals about who was once going to sleep together with her and her pal. Next factor, he was once brow to brow with every other guy, she says. Buckingham, reached through telephone in New Zealand, declined to remark and hung up.

Monahon says she again and again instructed Buckingham she didn’t need to discuss with him. Soon after, she heard Buckingham was once indignant at her.

Worried, she says, she instructed PAE’s human assets she feared for her protection. They took no motion. Per week later, Buckingham rushed up to her in Gallagher’s, shaking with anger, shouting and perilous her, she says.

“You’ve been talking s— about my mother,” he yelled at her, she says, leaving her baffled. “People who talk s— about my mother deserve to die.”

Monahon says she was once surprised to the core. “Snitches will get stitches,” she says Buckingham tousled as others intervened.

Cameron Dailey-Ruddy, who bartended at Gallagher’s, witnessed the commotion. He ordered everybody however Monahon to depart and referred to as 911, which connects to the station firehouse. From the dispatcher, Dailey-Ruddy were given the numbers for the Leidos station supervisor and PAE’s HR consultant and requested them to come to the bar.

“It was kind of an open secret at that point that that guy had been harassing her,” stated Dailey-Ruddy. He added that Buckingham was once on the bars maximum nights, infrequently drank in public spaces and pressured ladies.

Monahon says the managers introduced her to a secret room and instructed her she may just skip paintings day after today.

It was once the remaining time she would really feel supported through control.

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After an evening in her new room, Monahon met with PAE’s HR consultant, Michelle Izzi.

Monahon claims Izzi discouraged her from reporting what came about to the deputy U.S. marshal, in section as a result of it might create jurisdictional complications or even a global drawback, as Buckingham was once a New Zealand citizen. Monahon additionally says Izzi instructed her she wanted to in moderation believe how submitting fees would possibly have an effect on her for my part and affect all of the U.S. Antarctic Program.

In a later recorded assembly, Izzi denied that she discouraged Monahon and stated she had in reality suggested her to name the marshal. Izzi didn’t reply to the AP’s requests for remark.

The subsequent evening, Dailey-Ruddy says, Buckingham was once again on the bar. The evening after, in accordance to someone else conversant in the placement, Buckingham were given right into a bodily altercation with every other guy.

Dailey-Ruddy wasn’t stunned through the loss of motion against Buckingham.

“It seemed like par for the course in terms of the culture, and sexual harassment, and how women’s safety was addressed on the station,” he says.

Meanwhile, Monahon had taken the machinist’s hammer to protect herself. In a observation to PAE’s HR division, she wrote: “Zak Buckingham is a danger to me. He has threatened my life. He is capable of hurting me and he wants to hurt me. … I have been living in fear for the last two days.”

With her employers doing not anything to deal with her considerations, Monahon’s quick boss and associates got here up with their very own plan, in accordance to two workers conversant in the placement.

Monahon was once instructed to pack her luggage, and the following morning joined a bunch attempting to navigate a secure direction around the sea ice over 8 days to resupply a tiny U.S. outpost. The crossing is dangerous for the reason that ice can fall apart in the spring.

“To protect her, they put her in a dangerous situation,” stated Wes Thurmann, a fireplace division manager who had labored in Antarctica annually since 2012.

But they all felt it was once more secure than her final at McMurdo.

Thurmann, who was once additionally notified when Dailey-Ruddy referred to as 911, says he was once offered to McMurdo’s misogynistic tradition when a bunch of fellows recited a listing of girls they regarded as goals for intercourse. Often, Thurmann says, the NSF and Antarctic contractors blamed such conduct on alcohol.

But the bosses wouldn’t ban booze, he says, as a result of it might make deployments much less sexy.

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Monahon’s disaster at the ice wasn’t an anomaly. In November 2019, every other incident involving a meals employee driven the NSF to release its investigation. The meals employee didn’t reply to a request for remark, however her case is printed in interior emails received through the AP.

The lady instructed her bosses she’d been sexually assaulted through a coworker. Her efficiency was once due to this fact criticized through a manager, who was once additionally the female friend of the accused guy. Two months later, she was once fired.

Many of the lady’s colleagues were outraged. Julie Grundberg, then the McMurdo space supervisor for Leidos, again and again emailed her considerations to her superiors in Denver.

“The fact that we haven’t come out with some sort of public statement is making the community trust our organization even less,” Grundberg wrote.

Supervisor Ethan Norris answered: “We need your help to keep this calm and be a neutral party as you have only one side of the story at this point.”

Norris didn’t reply to a request for remark from the AP.

The case precipitated one of the ladies to shape their very own make stronger team, Ice Allies. More than 300 other people signed a petition calling for higher techniques for dealing with sexual attacks.

The meals steward settled a wrongful termination declare for an undisclosed quantity, other people conversant in the placement instructed the AP. Leidos later fired Grundberg, in a transfer many staff consider was once retaliatory.

Another meals steward, Jennifer Sorensen, instructed the AP she was once raped at McMurdo in 2015. Initially, she didn’t inform any person.

“On station, I had no advocate to speak on behalf of my needs and protection, no jail to protect me from my rapist, and no knowledge of any present law enforcement personnel,” Sorensen stated in a written account to the AP.

Still haunted 21 months later, Sorensen wrote to the person’s employer, GHG Corp., about what had came about. GHG later wrote again that it had investigated her claims with Leidos and wouldn’t rent the person once more.

“We have concluded that you were a victim of sexual harassment,” wrote GHG President Joseph Willhelm.

Sorensen says it was once shameful that GHG and Leidos downgraded what she says was once rape to harassment. GHG didn’t reply to a request for remark. Sorensen additionally contacted the FBI, which didn’t report legal fees and refused to unlock main points of its investigation to the AP.

Britt Barquist, who labored as foreperson of the gasoline division, instructed the AP she was once attending a security briefing with co-workers in 2017 when a person in a senior position reached below the desk and squeezed her higher leg.

“It was a lingering hand on the inside of my thigh, like as close as you can get to just grabbing my actual crotch,” Barquist says.

Her boss on the time, Chad Goodale, instructed the AP he noticed what came about and referred to as his manager. He stated the end result was once the person was once taken off a joint mission and instructed to steer clear of touch with Barquist. Yet upon returning to Antarctica in 2021, Barquist says, she was once compelled to paintings with the person once more.

“It was humiliating. And awful,” she says. “I would try to not make eye contact with him, or acknowledge him at all. … Towards the end, he would talk to me about things, and I would just be wanting to throw up.”

When Barquist returned to Antarctica remaining yr, she took a task as a prepare dinner, working along her husband at a tiny satellite tv for pc camp moderately than at McMurdo.

“I just wish I had been more protected,” she says.

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Shortly prior to Monahon returned from her expedition, Buckingham was once taken to a aircraft to pass house early. The lady who usually drives other people to the airfield refused to delivery him.

“With my supervisor, we just decided it’s not safe, and station management can drive him out themselves,” says Rebecca Henderson.

Izzi, PAE’s HR consultant, referred to as Monahon into a gathering. Izzi’s awesome, Holly Newman, was once at the telephone in Denver. Monahon recorded the dialog.

“The investigation was completed. We took appropriate action,” Newman says in the recording. She does not specify what motion was once taken rather than to say the individual was once not at the ice. She provides that infrequently they get reviews that don’t seem to be true.

Newman couldn’t be reached for remark.

In the recording, Newman then says issues of alcohol and other people “hurting other people” were happening in Antarctica since “way before” she first visited in 2015.

“Why does it happen? Why doesn’t it stop?” Newman asks. “Those are big questions and there are not really any answers that I sit on that are satisfactory yet.”

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In March 2022, Buckingham was once sentenced to 100 hours of group provider and 10 months of supervision after pleading accountable to two fees of breaching a coverage order for his ex-partner.

“This is … the first time you have been before the court on any offending of this nature,” Judge Kevin Glubb concluded. “It has to be the last, Mr. Buckingham, you understand that? You come back again, all bets are off.”

Buckingham by no means confronted any felony motion or penalties for what Monahon stated came about in Antarctica. He is now dwelling again in New Zealand.

Monahon hopes her tale activates the contractors in Antarctica to face extra responsibility. And she desires the NSF to do greater than doubtlessly exchange Leidos because the lead contractor when its contract expires in 2025.

“What are they going to do to make sure that this next contractor doesn’t do the same thing?” she asks.

Monahon was once decided to stay working at Antarctica and returned in 2022, however has determined to skip this season.

“It’s that mentality of don’t let them win,” she says. “But I do think they are winning right now.”

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AP researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this file.