Apple And Facebook To Pay For Female Employees Egg Freezing: A Perk Too Far?
Hoping to entice women to their companies, and keep them there, bosses at the tech giants are offering money for expensive fertility-prolonging egg freezing - but are they missing the point?
They've already got free food, free gym, dry cleaners on 'campus', top of the range tech, stand up desks and even an onsite barber - what else could employees of the biggest silicon valley companies Facebook and Google possible want?
Well, their bosses have scratched their heads to come up with even more perks to entice and keep the best people on board and in their latest HR brainwave they're tackling women - offering them money to have their eggs frozen, if they'd prefer to concentrate on their careers during the childbearing years.
It's a generous offer - egg freezing doesn't come cheap. According to spokespeople for both companies, the tech giants are offering $20,000 (£12,600) for the procedure, but depending on how many eggs a woman wants harvested and how long storage is needed for, the cost could far exceed this.
A Perk Too Far?
If you think about it too long it can feel like a terrifying Brave New World we're being led into by Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page, where women's fertility is a chip to be played and if we want to get anywhere in our careers we're best entrusting our future children to medical science, despite its advice we shouldn't 'leave it too late'.
Anyone else feel like they're in The Circle right now?
Dubbed the 'perks arms race', Silicon Valley companies are concerned that high salaries and free food just don't cut it anymore and are lavishing all sorts of other perks on their employees, including health and wellness packages as highly qualified employees get older and are more concerned about their wellbeing and future health.
Along with other digital companies, Google has had difficulty attracting and keeping women, especially in technical roles. The number of women working in professional computing jobs dropped eight per cent, to 25 per cent of the total, between 2000 and 2011 while the number of men climbed 16 per cent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the US.
And after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's inconceivably ill-advised comment that women who don’t ask for pay rises have ‘good karma’, it's becoming ever less surprising that tech-land is not an industry women are made feel welcome in.
But this egg-freezing offer is designed to change all that and appeal to highly-qualified, focused women aware of their fertility but not ready to pop out some sprogs yet. But it feels like a rather retrograde move.
The Message? Babies Ruin Careers
No doubt these companies think they're doing women a good turn by offering them the chance to prolong their fertility. But the message isn't as supportive.
Will women who choose not to freeze their eggs and who decide to start a family in their 20s and 30s be penalised for not taking the help offered to stay in the workplace longer before having children? How high up the ladder must women climb before they are allowed to get on with creating the next generation?
Or worse, will the subtle pressure of this 'perk' drive women into making a decision about their fertility they wouldn't otherwise have chosen, for fear of ruining their career.
Are we attempting to fight biology, moulding it to our wills? After all, later motherhood isn't without risk - genetic disorders and more difficult pregnancies and labours are associated with women having babies in their late 30s and 40s - and even beyond. And there have only been 20 babies born in the UK from frozen eggs. Not great odds.
Equality In The Workplace
Equality in the workplace is still something we struggle for, particularly in terms of equal pay and promotion. But equality does not mean we can be biologically the same. In current world business systems, men have huge advantages thanks to their wider-ranging fertility and the fact that they can have children without carrying, birthing or feeding them.
Not to play down dads' roles in childrearing, of course.
But instead of trying to change women's fertility concerns, perhaps Google, Facebook et al should instead work with what nature already has in place.
Both Facebook and Google already have family-friendly perks including cash hand outs for new parents, allowances for take-aways after a baby is born and maternity and paternity leave that far outstrips the US legal requirements (which are much lower than we have in the UK).
But instead of bullying women into delaying their family plans, why not use the money to close the pay gap? Or invest it in girls' tech training while they're still at school and college? Or even reduce the burden of childcare to make it worth mothers' while to come back to work if they wish to.
Facebook and Google might be trying to boost women's ability to stay in the workplace, but this new tactic might well see more edging themselves out of Silicon Valley.
[Everyday Sexism: Do We Need Feminism In 2014? Clue: Yes]
[Do We Expect Too Much From Our Partners?]
