Akbari, Maryam and Kaveh, Mohammad Hossein and Cousins, Rosanna (2024) Women’s experiences of sexual harassment in the retail clothing industry: A grounded theory study. Frontiers in Psychology, 15. ISSN 1664-1078
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Abstract
Introduction: Sexual harassment is a significant problem in workplaces all over the world. Women’s reactions to sexual harassment are influenced by various factors. The aim of the current study was to investigate how women respond sexual harassment in the retail clothing industry.
Methods: In-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted with 16 women aged 23–44 years (mean 29.18 years) employed for at least 3 years in clothes shops in Shiraz, Iran. A grounded theory approach was used to analysis the data and raise hypotheses.
Results: The main perpetrators of sexual harassment for female saleswomen were male customers. The women experienced conflict-induced stimulation (core phenomenon) when they were faced with sexual harassing behaviors (causal conditions). Such stimulation prompted three types of coping strategies: silence, avoidance, or confrontation. Intervening factors like the characteristics of the Iranian society (including family mores, state-imposed hijab regulations, patriarchal culture, educational system, and regulatory monitoring) and contextual factors (including individual and environmental factors and particularly employer expectations) were found to influence the selection of strategies used as well as their potential consequences in challenging situations.
Conclusion: The current study used a grounded theory approach to produce an explanatory storyline that can be tested. Sexual harassment induces conflict- induced stimulation and responses are influenced by intervening conditions, contextual factors, selected strategies, and the perceived consequences of the response. The findings of the grounded theory study suggest that there are negative consequences, particularly in terms of lack of employer support and losing one’s job, shame, and family disapproval which act as barriers for female saleswomen to counteracting sexual harassment from male customers. Such an understanding can also be applied to develop educational policies to support women as well as ameliorate the prevalence of this essentially illegal problem.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Additional Information and Comments: | Copyright © 2024 Akbari, Kaveh and Cousins. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
| Keywords: | sexual harassment, coping responses, female employees, grounded theory, silence, shame |
| Faculty / Department: | Faculty of Human and Digital Sciences > School of Psychology |
| Depositing User: | Rosanna Cousins |
| Date Deposited: | 05 Jun 2024 13:43 |
| Last Modified: | 05 Jun 2024 13:43 |
| URI: | https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/4289 |
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