AITA for firing an employee after he called me a “bitch”?

I’m a woman, 42, and I own a small nail & hair salon in a big city. It’s doing quite well and I’m proud of it. The salon is divided into two parts: one part is for hair and the other one is for nails. In total I currently have 9 employees: six are hairstylists (I’m one of them), three are nail technicians (one is my husband and the other two are his siblings). We’re all on very good terms.<br><br>One of our hairstylists, let’s call him Derek, had been having some issues with our nail technicians lately. He would always complain that they were too loud with their conversations because his clients couldn’t relax. I asked my husband and his siblings to please keep it down, but Derek would still complain. One day I got tired and decided to switch positions: I sent Derek to the nail section and my husband to the hair section.<br><br>Derek wasn’t happy, but he understands that he works for me and he needs to obey. Three days later he comes to me crying because my husband-in-law called him a “bitch”. I was livid. I fired my husband’s brother on the spot and I told him I expect more professionalism out of him (my husband wasn’t there at the time). My husband’s brother didn’t argue and left and I though it was all over.<br><br>The next day my husband comes to talk to me and tells me that he doesn’t agree with my decision. He said Derek deserves firing instead because he called his brother a “n word” first, which caused the reaction. I was livid. I asked if he was okay, he said he wasn’t and that I was a bitch for not standing up for my family. I had never seen him talk like this before and it brought me to tears. He then said I need to firing Derek instead of his brother because he doesn’t want to see him at work ever again. I agreed and I firing Derek by text.<br><br>Derek called me the next day asking if I could give him his coworkers phone numbers so he could see if any of them would switch jobs with him (he was going to ask for a higher salary in his new job if that happened). I said no and he called me a “bitch” too. Now I’m afraid my employees might start to think I’m a bitch and that I only defend men because I’m married. AITA?<br><br>EDIT: quick update: I unfired my brother in law and fired Derek. I called all my employees today (including Derek) to ask if they’d like to switch jobs. None of them said yes. I also asked if they felt mistreated by me, if I play favorites, if I do anything wrong, etc. and they all said I’m a great boss. So that’s good, I guess. My husband is still giving me the cold shoulder though.<br><br>EDIT 2: I just fired Derek’s last client that was with us. So it’s official now. My husband came up to me and apologized. He said I think very highly of me and I’m an amazing woman, boss and wife. I cried because I was so overwhelmed but I’m just glad he’s okay now. Thanks for all the comments, you helped me a lot!