Three women who were interns at SpaceX said they were harassed by other interns and men in more senior positions, some of which went without punishment.
In an essay published on the website Lioness on Tuesday, a former intern who later became a full-time engineer wrote that a male intern groped her while she was doing dishes in company housing. She said a male colleague ran his hand up her torso at a company event.
She reported the episode to her manager in the year that she was there, and the one in the year after that, she said. She said she never received a response to those complaints. She wrote that she felt powerless because of her tenuous position at the company.
Ms. Kosak reported other incidents to human resources. She said that she used an internal tip line that was supposed to be anonymous, but after she submitted the complaint, she was contacted by human resources staff who asked her questions about the reported harassment. She left the company after taking a medical leave of absence last month.
Ms. Kosak had similar accounts to those of other former interns. The second woman commented on the record, and a third woman who worked at the company for five years said she had not experienced harassment herself. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she signed a nondisclosure agreement. The fourth woman who says she experienced harassment spoke to The New York Times on the condition of anonymity out of concern for her reputation with employers in the space industry.
Requests for comment were not responded to by the company. In an email to employees on Saturday, Shotwell said that the company would conduct internal and independent audits of its human resources department.
The email was obtained by The Times and was sent by Ms. Shotwell. Wishing employees a happy holiday season, she said that they will berigorously investigate all harassment or discrimination claims and take swift and appropriate action when they find their policy violated.
The company has become a leader in spaceflight, launching many of the world's new satellites and also carrying NASA's astronauts to the International Space Station. The company founded by Musk was awarded a contract by NASA to build the next ride to the moon.
The work of female engineers from the company DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch Ms. Shotwell is important to its success.
According to data compiled by Data U.S.A., men outnumber women in the industry. Ms. Kosak said that women who work as interns and seek full-time jobs may be vulnerable to harassment and other forms of discrimination. Employees say that human relations departments have not always been quick to discipline employees who have been the subject of an investigation.
Women at other space companies have described discrimination. A group of 21 current and former employees of Blue Origin wrote in an essay on Lioness that the company was rife with sexism and retaliated against those who spoke up about safety issues. The company denied the accusations.
Ms. Kosak said in an interview that she felt compelled to go public with her experience at the company after reading the essay written by the former head of employee communications, who was fired by Blue Origin in 2019.
Ms. Kosak said in an interview that she met with Ms. Shotwell and Brian Bjelde, the company's human resources chief, about her complaint against the man who she said had groped her. She said that it was a meeting where she spoke at them and they spoke at her.
Ms. Kosak said the man who touched her was still working at the company. The man is still employed by the company.
Julia was a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when she was an intern for SpaceX. She claimed in the lawsuit that she was retaliated against after she reported the uncomfortable interactions with her manager, who would schedule longer performance meetings with her than her male colleagues, and ask questions about and comment on her dating life. She said another manager allowed her to transfer. The lawsuit says that she was denied an offer when she applied for a job in the summer of 2018, despite her high performance ratings. The lawsuit was settled earlier this year.
The former intern said she heard about sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior while working for the company. She said that half of the women she roomed with had stories about situations that made them uncomfortable.
The fourth former intern said she was harassed while living in housing offered by the company that often put men and women together. The company buys and rents homes and apartments near the launch sites.
A former intern said she encountered a male employee who was invited over for drinks by his male housemate. The man became drunk and tried to get into her bedroom as she was coming out of the shower, banging on the door and asking if she was naked.
She said that she was afraid that her co-worker would get into her room through a bathroom door that only her male intern could open. The intern said that she was told that the company would put in place a new housing policy where people of the same sex would not be allowed to use the bathroom.
The man was at the company.
Ms. Kosak said that if the strategy is to hire all these young people, and then not provide any resources on creating an equitable workplace, they are setting themselves up for failure.
