Egg-Freezing Benefit from Facebook, Apple Raises Workplace Questions

With the decision by Apple and Facebook to offer company insurance coverage to women who want to freeze their eggs come questions about the message this may send to women who pursue careers at prominent tech companies.

For instance: Is an employer paying to freeze a woman’s eggs a way to suggest motherhood and a demanding job are incompatible?

Or: Might the existence of an egg-freezing benefit pressure women to delay having children in favor of their careers?

“It’s complicated,” said Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute. “Egg freezing is very expensive, so this is a nice benefit. You want this option for people, but you don’t want to send the message that ‘we don’t expect you to be able to manage’ ” both parenting and a career.

Apple and Facebook are among the first companies to offer the option to freeze eggs as part of their benefits. Those who support the practice say it gives women more control over their work and personal lives, allowing them to delay motherhood until it's the right time for them or their careers.

“My sense is that the companies are sincere about trying to provide women more control over when they choose to start families,” said David G. Allen, distinguished professor of management at the University of Memphis’ Fogelman College of Business and Economics. “However, I would be hesitant to frame it in terms of a tool for leveling compensation and career progression for women. That could send the signal that the company believes women need to be strategic about managing when they have children or it will hurt their career, but men should feel free to have children whenever they want without worrying about it. It might make sense to offer the benefit to women and spouses to send the message that the goal is to help all employees manage their family planning, not just encouraging women to put off having children.”

Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook started providing the benefit, which applies to employees and their spouses or domestic partners, in January 2014. The social network offers as much as $20,000 in expenses for egg freezing and related procedures, such as surrogacy.

Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., said it will offer similar coverage in 2015. In a statement, an Apple spokeswoman said that the company wants to “empower women … to do the best work of their lives as they care for loved ones and raise their families.”

Recruiting and retaining womenThe think tank discovered that, despite high ambition and passion for their work, women in SET fields in the U.S., Brazil, China and India are “languishing in the middle rungs of their organizations and, as a result, are much more likely than men to report that they plan to leave the industry within the year.” 

A startling number of women working in science, engineering and technology (SET)—the same industries that grade schools are urging girls to pursue—are considering leaving those fields because of gender bias, according to a February 2014 report by the Center for Talent Innovation, a global think tank. 

The think tank discovered that, despite high ambition and passion for their work, women in SET fields in the U.S., Brazil, China and India are “languishing in the middle rungs of their organizations and, as a result, are much more likely than men to report that they plan to leave the industry within the year.”

In fact, 32 percent of female SET employees in the U.S., 22 percent in Brazil, 30 percent in China and 20 percent in India were considering leaving their fields within a year, according to the report. Among SET senior leaders, 31 percent of women in the U.S., 22 percent in Brazil, 51 percent in China and 57 percent in India reported that a woman would never get a top position at their company, no matter how capable or high-performing. 
pratima kumari

pgdm 2nd sem

comment:-“This is part of Silicon Valley creating organizational cultures that provide huge numbers of very expensive benefit.