Apple and Facebook offer to freeze eggs for female employees
Facebook to pay up to $20,000 while Apple will provide perk from January next year in effort to attract more women staff
Apple and Facebook are offering to freeze eggs for female employees
in an effort to attract more women on to their staff, according to US
media reports.
Apple, the world’s most valuable brand, said it would offer the perk to employees based in the US from January next year.
“We want to empower women at Apple to do the best work of their lives as they care for loved ones and raise their families,” the company said in a statement to ABC News. “We continue to expand our benefits for women, with a new extended maternity leave policy, along with cryopreservation and egg storage as part of our extensive support for infertility treatments.”
Facebook said it offers up to $20,000 (£13,000) for egg freezing for female employees. The company also offers adoption and surrogacy assistance and “a host of other fertility services for male and female employees”, the company said.
A typical round of egg freezing costs about $10,000, with $500 or more in fees each year for storage. Two rounds are usually necessary to harvest about 20 eggs, which is considered ideal.
The latest moves by Apple and Facebook are part of a growing trend to offer more employee perks at Silicon Valley companies to recruit new staff.
“This is a nice perk but of course it’s a very personal decision for every working woman,” Kellye Sheehan, of Women in Technology, a professional organisation for women in the tech industry, told USA Today. “When to time college, grad school, babies, starting a career, accelerating a career – all of these have huge ramifications in your life and that of your significant other. Is the employer trying to tell us something?
“Agreed, working mothers have a lot to juggle. But you can’t let your employer force you into something that doesn’t fit your values or personal choices.”
There is a dearth of senior women in Silicon Valley so the perks offered by Apple and Facebook could be seen as an attempt to rectify the gender imbalance. Apple said in its diversity report this year that its workforce was 70% male, while Facebook reported its workforce was 69% male.
The idea of freezing eggs for later use was first proposed for cancer patients as chemotherapy damages a woman’s eggs. Removing and freezing eggs of female cancer patients boosted chances of having children later on.
The idea behind “fertility preservation” is that by removing and fertilising their eggs in their 20s, women will have a better chance of getting pregnant in their 30s and 40s. Fertility gradually declines in the 30s and drastically around the age of 35.
Apple, the world’s most valuable brand, said it would offer the perk to employees based in the US from January next year.
“We want to empower women at Apple to do the best work of their lives as they care for loved ones and raise their families,” the company said in a statement to ABC News. “We continue to expand our benefits for women, with a new extended maternity leave policy, along with cryopreservation and egg storage as part of our extensive support for infertility treatments.”
Facebook said it offers up to $20,000 (£13,000) for egg freezing for female employees. The company also offers adoption and surrogacy assistance and “a host of other fertility services for male and female employees”, the company said.
A typical round of egg freezing costs about $10,000, with $500 or more in fees each year for storage. Two rounds are usually necessary to harvest about 20 eggs, which is considered ideal.
The latest moves by Apple and Facebook are part of a growing trend to offer more employee perks at Silicon Valley companies to recruit new staff.
“This is a nice perk but of course it’s a very personal decision for every working woman,” Kellye Sheehan, of Women in Technology, a professional organisation for women in the tech industry, told USA Today. “When to time college, grad school, babies, starting a career, accelerating a career – all of these have huge ramifications in your life and that of your significant other. Is the employer trying to tell us something?
“Agreed, working mothers have a lot to juggle. But you can’t let your employer force you into something that doesn’t fit your values or personal choices.”
There is a dearth of senior women in Silicon Valley so the perks offered by Apple and Facebook could be seen as an attempt to rectify the gender imbalance. Apple said in its diversity report this year that its workforce was 70% male, while Facebook reported its workforce was 69% male.
The idea of freezing eggs for later use was first proposed for cancer patients as chemotherapy damages a woman’s eggs. Removing and freezing eggs of female cancer patients boosted chances of having children later on.
The idea behind “fertility preservation” is that by removing and fertilising their eggs in their 20s, women will have a better chance of getting pregnant in their 30s and 40s. Fertility gradually declines in the 30s and drastically around the age of 35.
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