Musk has his MeToo moment

Elon Musk has his MeToo moment

What you probably already know: Billionaire tech executive Elon Musk doesn’t exactly have a sterling reputation as a man who avoids temptation and colors within the lines. But a new report out Wednesday from the Wall Street Journal includes an admission that he was having sex with an intern and allegations he has built a culture at SpaceX rife with sexism and harassment. Wednesday, a group of women filed a lawsuit against SpaceX and Musk alleging they were fired for raising concerns about exactly that.

Why? While Musk didn’t comment for the WSJ story, SpaceX’s president and COO Gwynne Shotwell said the reporting included “untruths, mischaracterizations and revisionist history” and added that Musk was “one of the best humans I know.” In addition to the unnamed intern, the WSJ spoke to several other women who Musk allegedly solicited for sex while they were working for SpaceX.

What it means: The unnamed intern’s story was corroborated through friends and colleagues who told the WSJ that Musk flew her to Sicily when they were together and frequently invited her to his mansion at night. Through a lawyer, she denied having a “romantic relationship” with Musk and said there was nothing predatory or wrongful about their relationship while she worked for SpaceX. Meanwhile, the lawsuit alleges a culture of sexual harassment at the company, where male engineers frequently referred to their genitals when describing rocket parts. (Really guys? Come on.)

What happens now? There was already a case before the National Labor Relations Board, brought by eight SpaceX engineers with similar allegations that they were fired for raising alarm bells. A judge rejected SpaceX’s legal challenge to that case, and it is making its way through the California courts.

Of note: I’m switching to first person here (which I’ll do from time to time) to call out the WSJ’s headline on this story: “Elon Musk’s boundary-blurring relationships with women at SpaceX.” When a man in a position of power targets very young women for sex and then promotes them into high-level positions in exchange for going along with it, that’s not blurry. It’s what HR would use in a training video to describe sexual harassment.

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