USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
    China
    Home / China / World

    Egg freezing: new benefit at Facebook

    By Agence France-Presse in Washington | China Daily | Updated: 2014-10-20 10:55

    Latest move rekindles controversy over role of women in workplace

    Free meals, four months of maternity leave and now egg-freezing: Facebook's latest gift to its employees has rekindled debate on the role of women in the workplace.

    The move shows that "we have a lot of work to do to help companies really understand what they need to do", said Carolyn Leighton, who founded WITI, a network of women working in the tech sector.

    As for paying to have eggs frozen - which allows women to put off having children - she dismissed the idea as "ridiculous".

    "My phone has been ringing off the hook with women who found it insulting," Leighton said.

    "They felt they were just trying to deflect the conversation about equal pay for women."

    That is apparently not the goal of Facebook, known among companies in Silicon Valley for its groundbreaking ideas on personnel management, in offering egg freezing coverage up to $20,000.

    A Facebook spokesman said of the company's healthcare benefits, "We take care of all our employees and the people who matter most to them."

    Leighton pointed out that, in the United States, a woman doing the same job as a man earns on average 77 percent of what he does.

    There is no universal, government-funded healthcare program in the US, and most Americans get their healthcare from their employer.

    At Facebook, the benefits include fertility treatment, surrogate mothers for homosexual couples and sperm bank access. This is all on top of three free meals a day at the office, medical care in situ and a carwash.

    'Generous' leave

    "We don't have women-specific benefits. We have benefits for people at Facebook," the spokesman said, insisting that the four-month maternity leave is quite generous in a country where much shorter periods are often granted.

    Apple, which will start paying for egg freezing in January, said it wanted to give its workers the power to make their lives productive as they take care of their loved ones and raise their children.

    Jessica Cussins of the Center for Genetics and Society, said in a Huffington Post editorial, "Surely what they meant to say was, 'We want women at Apple to spend more of their lives working for us without a family to distract them'."

    Chavi Eve Karkowsky, an obstetrician in New York, wrote in the online magazine Slate that when it comes to delayed child bearing, "the two factors that come up again and again are financial stability and the availability of an appropriate partner".

    Of the second factor, she added, "This is the one that I think creates the egg-freezing push."

    The procedure was once used mainly by people with cancer and is not without risk, and its results are not guaranteed.

    The debate has rekindled the controversy over women in the workplace, a key issue for the women's liberation movement.

    A week ago, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was forced to apologize after advising women to trust their "karma" rather than be assertive and ask for a raise.

    Last year, Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, published Lean In, a memoir presented as a modern feminist manifesto in which she urged women to work to succeed in juggling their careers and family life.

    Women make up 50.8 percent of the US population and 47 percent of the workforce.

     

    Editor's picks
    Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
    License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

    Registration Number: 130349
    FOLLOW US
    大地资源中文在线观看免费版 | 国产成人三级经典中文| 久久午夜无码鲁丝片秋霞| 精品久久久无码中文字幕天天| 中文字幕av在线| 久久无码av三级| 无码人妻视频一区二区三区| 中文字幕在线免费看线人| 日韩av片无码一区二区三区不卡| 亚洲AV人无码综合在线观看| 最近中文字幕在线| 一级片无码中文字幕乱伦| 国产AV巨作情欲放纵无码| 亚洲av中文无码乱人伦在线r▽ | 欧美日韩中文字幕在线| 免费无码专区毛片高潮喷水| 无码国产精品一区二区免费式芒果 | 久久精品无码午夜福利理论片| 最近中文字幕完整在线看一 | 亚洲精品无码AV人在线播放| 暖暖日本中文视频| 亚洲AV无码一区二区大桥未久| 亚洲爆乳精品无码一区二区三区| 久热中文字幕无码视频| 午夜无码一区二区三区在线观看 | 亚洲AV永久无码精品网站在线观看| 久本草在线中文字幕亚洲欧美| 免费无码一区二区| 五月婷婷无码观看| 刺激无码在线观看精品视频| 无码人妻丰满熟妇区免费| 精品亚洲成在人线AV无码| 人妻中文久久久久| 亚洲欧洲中文日韩久久AV乱码| 中文字幕国产在线| 中文字幕手机在线视频| 最近免费中文字幕大全高清大全1 最近免费中文字幕mv在线电影 | 中文字幕丰满乱孑伦无码专区 | 色多多国产中文字幕在线| 无码精品A∨在线观看中文| 中文无码不卡的岛国片|