14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook and Apple have started adding in another “benefit” to their employment packages, this time around directed to their female employees. The two companies think it’s best that these women delay having kids and focus on their careers instead, so they’re now offering to pay to freeze their eggs.
Now, it’s not completely unheard of for tech firms in the US to offer a wide range of perks, varying from extra cool headquarters, massages, free food, free transportation and so on. Offering to freeze a woman’s eggs as a perk, however, is all new.
The procedure is pretty costly everywhere in the world, including in the United States, where TechCrunch reports that it can cost up to $10,000 in the first phase and then an extra $500 per year to store the eggs.
Apple states that they are looking to expand benefits for women, extending the maternity leave policy, while also freezing eggs as part of a new effort to support infertility treatments, as well as offering an adoption assistance program.
While this seems like a generous move from the two companies, it encourages women to focus on their careers and to postpone having children. For those who desire to become mothers there’s a very thin line to walk on. Just because eggs can be frozen, it doesn’t mean that it’s medically safe to have a child later in life. Numerous studies show that having children after the age of 35 comes with plenty of risks for both the mother and the infant.
A very thin line between family and work
On one hand, Apple and Facebook are giving women the option to delay having a child as much as possible. On the other hand, it seems like a pretty direct push towards making sure that women are available to work for as long as possible.
US corporations aren’t exactly known for the many vacation days they offer employees and we’ve seen plenty of cases where mothers had to return to work soon after giving birth. The average paid time off for new moms in the United States stands at a mere two weeks, while women have the option to stay at home an additional three months with unpaid leave.
While it’s nice that women are given the option to become more financially stable before welcoming a child, the underlying question is what expectations these tech giants have regarding the women they employ.