There’s something almost cinematic about it: a CEO and a CPO caught on Kiss cam at a Coldplay concert. The crowd cheers. The camera lingers. And just like that, what looked like a rom-com scene explodes into a corporate scandal.

But let’s be honest: this story isn’t just about two high-level executives breaking their company’s code of conduct. It’s about how we, as a culture, decide who gets held accountable and who gets quietly edited out of the frame.

The names we remember. And the ones we erase.

The CEO of Astronomer, Andy Byron, has become internet cannon fodder. Think pieces, tweets, memes. His name is everywhere, cast as the powerful married man and father who crossed a line. And yes, that’s true. But what about Kristin Cabot, the Chief People Officer caught being cozy with him? Where is her headline?

Early reports carefully mentioned omitted her name. Even more telling: few acknowledged that she, too, is married to Andrew Cabot, CEO of Privateer Rum and has children as well. That fact only surfaced through secondary reporting and was quickly brushed aside. Many days after the scandal broke, even as both executives were placed on leave and Byron ultimately resigned, major outlets still tread carefully around Cabot. One the latest NBC article  stated they had not confirmed her identity — while the public had already flooded her LinkedIn profile days earlier.

The feminist loophole: accountability-free womanhood

We’re constantly told that feminism is about equality. Equal pay. Equal power. Equal opportunity. Great. But what about equal accountability?

Kristin Cabot isn’t a junior employee. She’s the head of people, the executive who literally oversees workplace ethics, behavior, and internal policy. She is, in many ways, the moral gatekeeper of the company. And yet, when she breaks those same standards, the media treats her like a side character in her own scandal.

It’s a dynamic I’ve seen too many times  in politics, in media, in our everyday social discourse: when a man messes up, we drag him. When a woman does, we explain her, protect her, or we forget her entirely.

This is why people are losing faith in the equality conversation

We cannot keep pretending this doesn’t have consequences.

There is a growing number of men, especially young men  who feel alienated by what they perceive as a one-sided moral code. And while I don’t subscribe to the rage of Red Pill culture, I understand its fuel: they’re watching how public narratives are shaped, and they’re not wrong to notice the double standards.

If a man cheats, he’s a monster. If a woman cheats, we’re told it’s complicated.

If a man in power violates ethics, it’s a headline.

If a woman in power does the same, it’s a PR footnote.

That’s not empowerment. That’s inconsistency.

If we want integrity, we need symmetry.

This isn’t about punishing women to make things “fair.” It’s about telling the truth with balance. If we’re serious about building an ethical workplace culture or a culture of trust at all, then women must be as answerable as men. Especially when they hold power.

Kristin Cabot doesn’t need to be destroyed.

She doesn’t need to be vilified.

She just needs to be acknowledged.

Because erasing her role in this scandal isn’t feminist: it’s dishonest. And that dishonesty? It’s why people tune out when we talk about equality. It’s why some are starting to believe it was never about equality in the first place.

If you’re going to hold the CEO accountable,you hold the CPO accountable too. Not because she’s a woman. But because she’s responsible.