‘I like seeing you bend down’: Shocking levels of sexual harassment in retail sector

Like most young female retail workers, Rebecca Donaldson is harassed by male customers. “It’s nice watching you; I like seeing you bend down,” the 23-year-old has been told as she pulls products from shelves.

Donaldson feels powerless in the face of “revolting” comments from nameless men, who leer and disappear. They’re the customers upon whom her job depends and who are, as the adage goes, always right. “I thought, ‘that’s just part of the job’,” she said.

Retail worker Rebecca Donaldson, who says she has been the victim of “revolting” comments at work.Credit: Jason South

New research has exposed the extent of sexual harassment in the retail industry, in which vulnerable, young workers are routinely subjected to gendered and sexualised comments from strangers, co-workers and bosses.

“It’s every day; it’s constantly there,” said co-author Rae Cooper, from Sydney University’s Australian Centre for Gender Equity and Inclusion, who analysed data and did in-depth interviews with workers, managers and employers.

Such treatment left workers “feeling vulnerable, feeling unsure about what to do,” said co-author, the centre’s Professor Elizabeth Hill. “Feeling fearful. Because of the structure of the industry, they’re on insecure work, they’re on rosters, on shifts.”

Workers told of watching 15 and 16-year-old girls in their first jobs being sexually harassed, “normally by men,” one said, “much older, sometimes 60-year-olds”. They would be harassed in small spaces without surveillance, such as fitting rooms.

They might sell underwear, and face questions from men such as, “My wife is about your breast size. So what size are you? And do you like the feel of this product on you?” one worker told the researchers.

Yet, as another worker from the sector, which employs one in 10 Australian workers, said, if a customer comes in and says something “gross and sexually suggestive to you”, [reporting] a “nameless, faceless individual … is not going to do anything.”

The harassment was often subtle, involving hard-to-confront behaviour such as leering, staring, hovering or inappropriate but not overly sexual comments. Usually, it was less about sexual desire than exerting power or status.

“That double whammy of being young and female can really lead to these gendered relations of power,” said Hill.

‘A lot of the male customers tend to go after younger female retail workers … [they think] she just has to smile and take it.’

A contributor to the study into sexual harassment of female retail workers

Workers were also harassed by their bosses and co-workers, the report found, yet systems to identify, report, and act upon such behaviour in an industry with high turnover varied widely in quality, frequency and effectiveness between employers.

Data shows one in two women and one in four men working in retail have experienced harassment in the past five years. The most common form was sexually suggestive comments, followed by invasive questions and staring or leering.

One interviewee said they found “a lot of the male customers tend to go after younger female retail workers … [they think], ‘oh if I say something to her, she can’t do anything. She just has to smile and take it’.”

Donaldson, from Melbourne, said she has been sexually harassed by co-workers, who have touched her backside and her breast. “We’ve got training about why it’s important not to sexually harass people, but it’s still happened to me three times,” she said.

Rebecca Donaldson has been harassed by customers in her retail job.Credit: Jason South

The researchers said the report put the retail industry on notice to take action to protect workers, especially as new positive duty laws meant company directors not only had to respond to incidents, but also try to prevent them in the first place.

They called for better data collection and an industry-wide response, which could involve a standard warning to customers about the consequences of harassing staff. It could read, “You’ll get booted out of these premises if you are disrespectful to any of our staff,” said Cooper.

The research was funded by ANROWs, the national research organisation for women’s safety.

Chief executive Tessa Boyd-Caine said retail harassment was part of a broader social environment in which domestic, family and sexual violence continued to cause great harm.

“We need to reflect on the role of power in these abusive relationships,” she said.

“The research shows that prevailing norms, like the belief that “the customer is always right,” or working relationships between managers and more junior staff, may consciously or unconsciously perpetuate imbalances.”

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