Allegations of sexism have hit an Arctic research ship, after women were told not to wear any revealing clothing owing to a 'safety issue'.
Reporter with US-based E&E News, Chelsea Harvey, was on board the Russian vessel 'Akademik Fedorov' for six weeks.
She told Newstalk Breakfast: "About two weeks into the mission, so nearly half way through, the leadership onboard that expedition announced some new rules, a new dress code.
"What was explained to us in several meetings was that we should not be wearing very tight-fitting clothing - no leggings, no short-shorts, no crop tops, nothing too revealing.
"And it was further explained to us that there were a lot of men onboard the ship, and in one of these meetings it was explained to us there was a safety issue.
"They didn't come right out and say 'We are concerned that the men onboard this ship will harass you if you don't change the way you dress', but that did seem to be to us what the implication was.
"There was no guidance given specifically to men - the guidance that was given to us in the meetings, they didn't come right out and say this guidance was only specifically for women either.
"It's just that the types of clothing that they were identifying were garments that were primarily worn by women onboard the ship.
"And then of course there was this heavy emphasis on 'There are so many men onboard the ship' and so that's why it seemed to be the implication was [towards women]."
'All too common' problem
"It definitely changed the atmosphere onboard the ship, there was a lot of resentment and also a little alarm as well."
"Over the course of my reporting this story, it did come out later on that there was in fact an incident of harassment that was reported by some of the women onboard the ship.
"But at the time this was not widely known - but yes, for some people onboard the ship they had already in fact experienced some problems".
"I wondered if this was a one-off, or if this was something that happens on other expeditions.
"And unfortunately, after talking to experts and other researchers, it seems that this is a problem that's all too common - even still today, and so that's disappointing.
"But it identifies the problem, and hopefully this story will be able to spur some action to prevent these kind of things in the future".
Asked if the women onboard changed their dress code, she said: "Yes: after the new rules were announced everybody kind of switched to wearing jeans or lose-fitting sweatpants and that sort of thing for the rest of the mission".
