I’ve now received this news item three times. This is a subtle cue for me to do a post. The undertone from those sending the item, of course, is that this is strange and/or upsetting. And it is.
Two major companies, Apple and Facebook, are offering egg freezing as a perk for their female employees.
Two Silicon Valley giants now offer women a game-changing perk: Apple and Facebook will pay for employees to freeze their eggs. Facebook recently began covering egg freezing, and Apple will start in January, spokespeople for the companies told NBC News. The firms appear to be the first major employers to offer this coverage for non-medical reasons.
“Having a high-powered career and children is still a very hard thing to do,” said Brigitte Adams, an egg-freezing advocate and founder of the patient forum Eggsurance.com. By offering this benefit, companies are investing in women, she said, and supporting them in carving out the lives they want.
My take: This sort of “perk” highlights how this working world is very hostile to women. Work now. Work harder. Work more, in offices that are not conducive to having children. Have children, sure, but always later, later, later. But so that you feel better about that, freeze your eggs now.
It is almost exclusively my demographic that will take advantage of this. Younger women believe they can always have kids. It’s not something they question. Most women who are older than me will think it’s too late. But women in their 30s… that’s the demographic. Those women who quietly wonder what the point of the work, work, work is when there’s no family to come home to.
I think it’s insidious, to be perfectly honest. And sadly, some women will do it. Not because they think it’s a great idea, but rather because it’s an insurance policy, or so they think.
Finally, this is a symptom of a bigger problem, not the problem itself. So don’t blame the women who go ahead and do it. Just some random thoughts on the strangeness of our culture that pays lip service to giving perks to women while giving no perks to women.
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