Image courtesy of Bob Jagendorf / Flickr Creative Commons
I am a working woman and mom. The news this week that two giant tech companies, Facebook and soon Apple, will be offering female employees paid coverage for freezing eggs (yep, the ones from their ovaries) as a “perk” struck me as very concerning. Is it sending the right message?
What if, when I applied for my state job, it listed among the perks: “As an added bonus, if you are an employee, we will pay for you to freeze eggs taken from your ovaries so you can delay childbearing!”
Ummmm…. is this good news?
Now I love employee perks and extra benefits. Like, because I am a state employee, I did not have to pay a fee to join the YMCA! Perks are nice extra benefits that make your life a little easier and convenient., and often relate to the company’s message and vision. Like, my YMCA perk reinforces that the State values the health and fitness of employees.
I work in the health field and am a vocal advocate of reproductive health and rights. I personally believe men and women should have the right and opportunity to decide if and when to have a child and they should have access to affordable tools to help them accomplish their reproductive goals.
But……this new perk raises some serious questions that require examination.
Is there really a growing demand for this type of procedure, or is industry trying to create one?
And if there is a growing demand for this… why? Are more women truly wanting to delay childbearing? Or are they responding to a workplace or societal expectation?
And who wins from this deal? Companies, or women and families?
I am not sure this “perk” truly has the intent of promoting reproductive health or sending the message that these companies value women’s choice. Are they also covering all costs related to birth control? To fertility treatments? To abortions? To pregnancy, labor and delivery, and related health complications? To paid maternity and paternity leave? To in-house, affordable or free daycare?
To me, what these companies are really saying is, “Even though you are at the height of your reproductive life cycle right now, we want you to focus on your work with us, so we are offering this perk to encourage you to delay childbearing! We’ll even help you do that by freezing your eggs which costs a lot of money, so we’re really invested in this idea! Trust us, it’s best for you AND the company!”
or
“We promote work-life balance by helping you continue to delay your ‘life’ goals and focus more on the ‘work’ part.”
Also, let’s face it, they are not offering this ‘perk’ to teenagers. These are professional women who likely have been through lots of education and are in their mid-twenties to early thirties, which is coincidentally the safest time in a woman’s life to have a baby. This is the part you knew was coming where I bring up that reproductive risk increases with a woman’s age, especially past age 35. The science does not lie. People were not designed to have children later in life, especially if they have other health risks. The risk increases for prematurity, chromosomal abnormality, and miscarriage.
Should companies, and us as a society, be encouraging women to delay and delay and delay childbearing until the “perfect moment”? There is no perfect moment. Or should companies and society meet women and men and families where they are and provide “perks” that truly promote a work-life balance?
Freezing eggs is very expensive, but so is daycare, maternity leave, and everything else that comes with raising kids. How about offering $15,000+ worth of assistance to whatever a woman or man needs to reach their reproductive goals? That way, if a woman wants to use her money to freeze eggs, great! Or if a couple needs fertility treatment, use it for that! Or if a woman who is pregnant has to go on bed rest, great! She can use the money to support her family during that stressful time.
After all, when each one of us is on our deathbed, none of us will say we wish we had worked harder. But almost all of us will say “I wish I had more time with my family/children.”
About Mary Beth Cox