The assumption being that "the problem is that Dave behaves inappropriately sometimes", which may or may not be true. Character witness is relevant in these kinds of cases.
Why is this? It's because, from what I have read, a number of studies find that when women are treated inappropriately at work, they rarely speak up. This is because they are afraid they wouldn't be believed, and there would be retaliation by their employers. They are also afraid they would be personally attacked by raving asshole woman-haters. Woman I have talked to personally on this subject have told me the same thing.
As to character witnesses, the whole piece is an argument as to why they are not very relevant.
That doesn't follow logically. Just because women tend not to "speak up" when they're treated badly doesn't mean women who aren't treated badly "speak up" when nothing happened. You just don't know.
>As to character witnesses, the whole piece is an argument as to why they are not very relevant.
Yes, and not a very good one. When you get into a he said/she said situation character witnesses are usually all you have to go on.
He wrote a whole article where he admitted it was true.