Introduction

Protecting the female workforce from sexual harassment is a legal duty for employees in most countries; nevertheless, it is a common phenomenon. The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate how and why Iranian women working in retail sales responded when confronted by sexual harassment by customers.

Methods

The setting for this qualitative study was Shiraz, Iran, in 2020. Purposeful and snowball sampling was used to recruit 16 women with at least 12 months experience in clothing sales and experience of customer-based sexual harassment. The Theory of Planned Behavior was used as a conceptual theoretical framework for the semi-structured in-depth interview guide and directed content analysis of the data.

Results

All participants generally stayed silent, did not retaliate, and did not report events of sexual harassment. Motivations to comply with employer expectations, threats of getting fired, negative judgments from important others, a lack of social support, and a fear of retaliation from the harasser were negative personal consequences which decreased their perceived power to respond.

Conclusions

The Theory of Planned Behavior provided a good framework to explain saleswomen’s responses to sexual harassment from customers. Silence and inaction were the norm because of perceived potentials for further personal harm, in common with other studies.

Policy Implications

Our findings indicate a need for educational interventions that can develop assertiveness skills to empower female employees to eliminate acceptance of customer-based sexual harassment as part of the job, as well as call upon the protection they should have from labor laws.

中文翻译：

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了解伊朗女性对顾客性骚扰的反应：基于计划行为理论的定向内容分析

介绍

在大多数国家，保护女性员工免受性骚扰是员工的法律义务；然而，这是一个普遍现象。这项定性研究的目的是调查从事零售工作的伊朗女性在面临顾客性骚扰时如何以及为何做出反应。

方法

这项定性研究的背景是 2020 年的伊朗设拉子。采用有目的的滚雪球抽样方法招募了 16 名女性，她们拥有至少 12 个月的服装销售经验，并且有过基于顾客的性骚扰经历。计划行为理论被用作半结构化深度访谈指南和数据定向内容分析的概念理论框架。

结果

所有参与者普遍保持沉默，没有报复，也没有举报性骚扰事件。遵守雇主期望的动机、被解雇的威胁、重要他人的负面判断、缺乏社会支持以及担心骚扰者报复，这些都是负面的个人后果，降低了他们感知到的应对能力。

结论

计划行为理论提供了一个很好的框架来解释女售货员对顾客性骚扰的反应。与其他研究一样，沉默和无所作为是常态，因为人们认为可能会造成进一步的人身伤害。

政策影响

我们的研究结果表明，需要采取教育干预措施，培养自信技能，使女性员工能够消除对基于客户的性骚扰作为工作一部分的接受，并呼吁她们应获得劳动法的保护。