Facebook and Apple are changing the game for career women who, in the past, had to face the difficult and often stigmatized choice between career and family.
Both companies have announced that they will begin covering expenses for women employees who want to freeze their eggs for fertilization and implantation later on.
Support for fertility treatments provides women working in the male-dominated technology industry an incentive: now, they can literally put their biological clocks on hold while they focus on their careers.
On the other hand, it could send the wrong message that the companies do not want their employees to focus on building their families and instead give their full attention to their careers.
While men are able to continue producing sperm well into old age, women's reproductive ability begins declining at age 27 and deteriorates even more rapidly beginning at 35, the time frame when most employees are at their prime and should be building their career.
Allowing women to freeze their eggs gives them power over their own fertility so that they will never have to sacrifice their careers for motherhood or vice-versa.
The process of freezing eggs is expensive if paid out of one's own pocket. One round could cost up to $12,000; yearly costs of medication and upkeep could add up to $4,000 to that figure. Apple and Facebook will reportedly cover the costs of up to $20,000.
The offer from both companies is set to begin in January 2015.
Additional benefits in the future may include support for adoption and surrogacy procedures. Facebook already offers their employees who become new parents $4,000 in cash to use "however they like," according to NBC News.
Although many experts say that covering egg-freezing expenses still does not fully address the gender gap in the workforce, many women agree that it opens up a world of possibilities for building both their careers and families so that they can enjoy the best of both worlds.
