SpaceX employee sues company for alleged sexual discrimination, retaliation

A SpaceX employee is suing the company for sexual discrimination and retaliation, among other alleged violations.

Michelle Dopak, a production coordinator at SpaceX headquarters in Southern California, claims that she was paid significantly less than her male counterparts, denied promotions that she deserved and subjected to workplace harassment, including male colleagues saying that she only got her job because of her looks.

According to the lawsuit, which was filed in California Superior Court on Tuesday (March 5), Dopak and two female colleagues took their concerns to SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell in August 2018.

The trio “felt compelled and were forced to bring their resumes and a list of accomplishments and projects to Shotwell to prove their worth and disprove the rumors being spread about them, an action that no male colleague or employee at SpaceX would ever feel the need to do to justify their hiring and stop such discriminatory actions,” the suit states. “However, despite their complaints, no actions were taken by Shotwell or SpaceX.”

Related: US Department of Justice sues SpaceX for hiring discrimination

After a management reorganization in January 2019, Dopak began reporting to a different supervisor. According to the lawsuit, this supervisor was a married man who coerced her into a sexual relationship that resulted in a pregnancy.

Dopak claims that the supervisor offered her $100,000 to get an abortion, which she did not take. He then attempted to evade child-support payments, with the help, she says, of company higher-ups, who wanted to silence her.

SpaceX management “colluded with [the supervisor] to allow him to transfer his 48,289 shares of Common Stock (valued at $77/share; totaling $3,718,253) out of his name so he could fraudulently avoid paying Plaintiff any child support,” claims Dopak’s 40-page suit, which you can read in its entirety here, thanks to The Verge.

That supervisor left the company in June 2022, according to the lawsuit. Dopak took a medical leave of absence that September due to the harassment, coercive affair and resulting emotional distress. After she returned to work, she claims, her new supervisor demanded that she work long and unreasonable hours.

“SpaceX and its aforementioned managers are blatantly setting Plaintiff up to fail and deliberately violating her medical accommodation work requirements in order to force Plaintiff to quit and to specifically retaliate against her not only for her medical leave of absence, but her sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation complaints,” claims the lawsuit, which is seeking unspecified damages.

Space.com reached out to SpaceX for comment but has not yet heard back from the company.

Dopak’s suit is one of several that allege wrongdoing by SpaceX. Last August, for example, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the company, saying that it has discriminated against job applicants who are refugees or asylum recipients.

In October 2023, a former SpaceX engineer filed a proposed class-action suit, claiming the company discriminates against women and minorities. And this past January, the wife of a SpaceX worker whose skull was fractured during a 2022 engine test sued the company for negligence.