It’s already been amply established that if–or rather, when–Donald Trump gets bounced from office, Mike Pence wouldn’t be a substantial improvement. For instance, earlier this week, the Senate deadlocked on a procedural vote to advance a bill to defund Planned Parenthood. Pence cast the tiebreaking vote that allowed the bill to move forward. Never mind that the effort to defund Planned Parenthood is driven at least in part from a borderline libelous conspiracy theory launched by a fringe anti-abortion outfit, the Center for Medical Progress. Two of CMP’s leaders are now facing criminal charges for their deceit.
But in the same week, we got an even better example of why we shouldn’t rejoice if Pence ends up in the presidency as a result of Trump being either impeached or forced to resign. The Washington Post stumbled on an old 2002 report that then-Congressman Pence did not eat alone with a woman other than his wife, Karen. That policy continued when he was governor of Indiana, and he has retained this policy as vice president.
Pence’s policy is similar to a longstanding rule Billy Graham imposed on himself to avoid the appearance of temptation. However, it is one thing for a minister to have this rule. It is quite another for an elected official–especially when he is a heartbeat away from the most powerful elected office in the world. For that reason, Pence was deservedly sliced, diced, and julienned on Twitter. Well, an expert in employment law believes that Pence’s policy on dinner isn’t just sexist. It may violate federal anti-discrimination law.
Joanna Coleman, a law professor at Southern Methodist University, argues that Pence’s dinner policy falls afoul of the Civil Rights Act of 1964–specifically, Title VII, which governs workplace discrimination. She believes that if a male employer refuses to dine alone with a woman who isn’t his wife, it would be “clearly illegal when practiced by a boss in an employment setting.”
How’s that, you ask? Well, Coleman notes that Title VII forbids employers from establishing one set of conditions of employment for men and another set for women. This extends to all aspects of the employer-employee relationship, including “equal access to the employer.” Under this rule, employers are not allowed to “cordon off certain jobs, tasks, or opportunities” based on sex without hard proof that sex is “a bona fide occupational qualification.”
Pence’s rule would not even begin to meet this standard–a fact noted by several of his Twitter critics.
https://twitter.com/imillhiser/status/847427534094352386
A whole swath of America thinks men and women don't work together and can't be friends. https://t.co/2So8O5MjoY
— Elizabeth Spiers (@espiers) March 30, 2017
One impact, (the lesser imo) is that if Pence can't even have a business meeting with a woman not his wife then only men can advance w/him
— Salena the Teenage Witch (@Salencita) March 30, 2017
Women are (quite literally) not at the table and cannot be in any important roles, whether when he was Indiana Gov, now VP, anywhere.
— Salena the Teenage Witch (@Salencita) March 30, 2017
Moreover, Coleman points out that employers are banned from making employment decisions based on “gender-based stereotypes.” The Pence rule is the very definition of such a stereotype. Specifically, the idea that women are “incapable of having purely professional relationships” with male colleagues, and that eating alone with a woman could potentially lead a man astray.
Coleman has heard a number of stories about women who have been locked out of one-on-one meetings with their bosses or even fired to appease wives due to policies that are very similar to the one Pence has in place. She believes that “some counseling is in order” if either spouse feels so vulnerable that a woman can’t be within an area code of a married man without his wife being nearby. I can only agree. Any romantic relationship must be built on trust.
Coleman believes that in his own way, Pence is every bit as sexist as Trump.
“We have a president who brags about grabbing women by the pussy — and a vice president who won’t even have dinner with them. These are two sides of the same coin, both reflecting the fundamentally unequal sphere working women inhabit because of male behavior.”
We already knew that a President Pence would be only marginally more palatable than a President Trump. Well, here’s more proof.
(featured image courtesy Trump’s Facebook)
