Women working for Facebook and Apple are being offered an additional perk: they can have their eggs frozen. Facebook has been offering the service for its employees in the US since the start of this year. Apple will follow suit from January 2015.
The policy is designed to attract and keep top female talent, by helping them avoid having to choose between motherhood and professional progression.
Both companies are offering up to $20,000 (£12,500) for US employees covered by their insurance plans, to finance the procedure to extract the eggs and for their storage.
However critics of this policy suggest that the companies should instead focus on offering more flexibility and support for new parents. Also some feminists are not completely convinced about the move.
“There’s a danger that with this sort of policy companies give a signal – or even promote the idea – that a women needs to postpone having children in order to succeed in the workplace,” says Daisy Sands, head of policy at the Fawcett Society, a group that campaigns for equality for women.