Upcoming Book Exposes Troubling Sex Parties in Silicon Valley

It is widely acknowledged that women striving for success in the technology sector face unique challenges and dangers that their male peers do not. However, an upcoming publication sheds light on a less discussed factor: private, drug-laced sex parties where the rhetoric of sexual freedom masks an underlying inequality in power.

Emily Chang, a veteran reporter for Bloomberg, is set to release her book Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley, which criticizes these uninhibited events. An excerpt was published in Vanity Fair on Tuesday.

Chang interviewed roughly twenty individuals familiar with these gatherings, where men—typically early-stage investors, successful founders, and top-level executives—socialize with young, appealing women employed in tech or related fields.

Unnamed sources described secretive events that frequently include drug use, as Chang wrote. Participants are encouraged to engage in sexual activities with one another. The hosts often require a greater number of women than men and design the parties to cater “heavily toward male-heterosexual fantasies,” according to Chang. “Women are often expected to be involved in threesomes that include other women; male gay and bisexual behavior is conspicuously absent.”

While many men Chang spoke with consider these parties another form of industry disruption, women are caught in a dilemma: declining the invitation means losing access to business deals and networking, but attending carries its own risks.

One female entrepreneur informed Chang that participating in such sex parties closes the door to founding a company or securing investment. Yet, staying away also leads to exclusion. She described it as a lose-lose situation.

Other women who spoke with Chang reported that after their attendance at these events became known, male colleagues aggressively pursued them and subjected them to sexual harassment.

This predicament is hardly unexpected given Silicon Valley’s track record of gender bias: women in tech earn lower salaries, are shut out of leadership positions, and endure widespread sexual harassment. Last year, the most prominent sexual misconduct scandal in the tech industry occurred at Uber, where 20 employees were dismissed following a wave of harassment allegations.

Chang’s book is scheduled for release next month. The full excerpt can be read here.