But after Knight’s wife, who also worked in the dental office, discovered the text messages, she demanded that Nelson be fired.
According to the Des Moines Register, Knight consulted with his pastor, and then explained to Nelson’s husband that “she’s a big threat to our marriage” and that Knight feared he would attempt an affair if Nelson stayed around. Rather than be a grown up and simply control his attraction to his married dental assistant, he fired her.
Nelson’s attorney filed a lawsuit alleging gender discrimination but not sexual harassment since Nelson had not been particularly offended by Knight’s conduct. Knight denied firing Nelson because she was a woman.
Rather, he claimed her firing was necessary to protect his marriage from the threat she posed. A district judge agreed with Knight that the firing was legal and the Iowa high court upheld that ruling.
“The issue before us is not whether a jury could find that Dr. Knight treated Nelson badly. We are asked to decide only if a genuine fact issue exists as to whether Dr. Knight engaged in unlawful gender discrimination when he fired Nelson at the request of his wife,” Judge Edward Mansfield wrote in the majority opinion. “We believe this conduct did not amount to unlawful discrimination.”
Obviously, it was not a good idea for Mrs. Nelson to engage in any kind of texting with her boss, especially when his wife worked in the same office. But should an employee’s job be vulnerable as a result of nothing more than a wife’s insecurity or a husband’s temptation?
Surely, Mrs. Nelson is not the first or last woman to lose a job due to her boss having a wandering eye and a wife’s instinct. But isn’t this just another example of a woman being punished simply for being a woman?
After a 16-year-old girl was raped by two classmates in Steubenville, Ohio, Serena Williams suggested in an interview with Rolling Stone that the victim held some responsibility for the attack. Williams said the girl “shouldn’t have put herself in that position” and chastised the girl’s parents for not teaching her about the dangers of drinking alcohol.
Absent from the conversation was our continued failure to raise young men who are taught to control their own reactions to women, regardless of whether she is drunk or wearing a short skirt. Do we as a society really expect a woman to be able to predict a man’s reaction before she can hope for safety or fairness?
As more and more women fill the top levels of corporate America, the behavior of men will continue to be scrutinized and the definition of acceptable behavior will continue to change.
Women like Melissa Nelson will continue to speak up when their careers are hampered by something as common and routine as a boss who thinks she is hot.
Boys may still be boys, but they will have to eventually learn how to work with all kinds of women, even the ones who aren’t approved of by their wives.
Melissa Carter is also a writer for Huffington Post. She broke ground as the first out lesbian radio personality on a major station in Atlanta and was one of the few out morning show personalities in the country. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCarter