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Technology giants Facebook and Apple will now pay for female employees to freeze their eggs. While Facebook has been providing this benefit to its women employees since the start of the year, Apple will join in early next year. While this move is being seen by some as a major benefit to career oriented women, who will not have to let go of their career goals or their family commitments, there are many on social media who think that this is a bigger proof how companies are trying to come up with great sounding provisions so that their profits aren’t hit.
Femina readers share their thoughts…
“Are these companies trying to tell us that career is more important than starting a family? I wonder that when a woman approaches them with a news that she is pregnant and will need to go on a leave from so and so, do they retort with, ‘hey, but you could have just frozen your eggs and planned a kid for later.’ I also want to know, what will be a good time to get pregnant? Will there be a lean period ever in a company where employees will be encouraged to take leaves? Does this mean that a woman can’t have kids until she leaves these companies?” - Mrinal Chauhan, 29
“Instead of giving me money to freeze my eggs, it would be better if they paid money for the training of an existing or new employee who can fill in during my absence. I do not want a company to tell me when I can have kids and when I can’t. Not taking away from the process of freezing eggs for childbirth at a later stage, it is beneficial for women who for various reasons, professional, personal, financial might push bearing a child. However, this move by these companies just show how they want women to put career first. This is something that shouldn’t be encouraged.” - Rati Ahuja, 28
“Women are anyways pushing the age that they get married at thus pushing pregnancy. Now, with this ‘freezing eggs’ perk, companies are encouraging women to further delay childbirth. Is anyone thinking of a woman’s health in all this? If an employee is that important for you that you can’t afford to let her go on a maternity leave, then why not make it convenient and flexible for her to come back post pregnancy? Now, that will be a real perk!” - Indira Mahanta, 28
"I guess most women put childbirth in the back burner because they don’t have the resources that will help them take care of the child. What with both the parents working to make ends meet? I am sure an extension in maternity leave and post child birth leave for both parents will be more welcome as a perk. Also, will a delay in childbirth help? I doubt! For as you grow older, you will also grow in the corporate hierarchy, making it difficult for you to completely switch off from work. Also, you don’t want to bear a child at an age where you won’t be able to do the running around.” - Deepshikha Ghosh, 28
What the doctor feels: Dr. Firuza Parikh, Director of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics at Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre, Mumbai.
Today the Indian woman is very conscious about her career options and many women find themselves at crossroads when trying to decide between marriage and having a baby and meeting their career requirements. The biological clock slows down in the mid thirties and practically halts at 40 hence I would advise women to complete their childbearing before their mid-thirties. However for many women that is not practical. Today with technological advances it is possible for a woman to have her younger eggs frozen and have a baby when she is older.
It is a practical move. It may not be a good move because in order to have these frozen eggs translate into good quality embryos later we need to freeze at least 15 to 20 eggs. Also it may give the woman a false sense of security to use this technology as a fall back option and hence delay marriage and childbearing indefinitely.
Process cost: The procedure costs Rs. 1 lakh, medication costs between Rs. 50000 to Rs. 1 lakh. Storage charges vary between Rs. 10000 to Rs. 25000 per year depending on the number of eggs.
We asked our readers about the perk they would like their company to offer. We hope all the employers out there read this and take inspiration.
- Compulsory one week paid leave every four months. Most companies offer 21 PLs a year. Break this down into three such vacations a year. The stressful times we live in, this will ensure that the employee is happy and don’t we know that being stress free and happy ups our output at work? – Mitra Kumar, 30
- Karaoke nights and a free beer every Friday to kick off a great weekend. And as they as, alls well that ends well, this will also help employees to end the week gone by on a good note and be ready to take on the challenges of the next. – Shalini Gaur, 29
- There are no free lunches. And we are okay with that. But there can be free ice-cream! And make it every day. – Disha Dadlani, 27
- All our work happens on our computers. So an option to work from home for a day every week will be great. - Roshni Kumari, 26
- Our work is increasingly becoming desk bound where we spend hours together looking at our computer screens. Most of us complain of some kind of neck or back pain. It will be great to have a free spa session every week. Or have an in house free massage parlor where employees can take appointment whenever convenient for them and avail a free massage a week. – Sonakshi Bhatnagar, 28
- A grooming session once a month that I can get reimbursed would be great. There can be a cap to it, so that employees choose their salons and services accordingly. – Anjali Thakkar, 28