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Stephanie Vozza, quoting I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
Fast Company
March 3, 2015

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From the article:

Last year, Apple and Facebook both announced that they would cover egg freezing as a benefit for female employees. If you’re a woman who is considering postponing parenthood, this perk might be enticing, but the majority of parents want something different—something a lot less advanced and a lot less expensive. They want flexibility.

"Both women and men want autonomy and responsibility to determine how and when their work gets done," says Jennifer Owens, editorial director of Working Mother magazine and Working Mother Research Institute, which does an annual survey identifying the 100 best employers for parents. "Year after year, it’s the number one answer in our Best Companies survey." [...]

As law firms—also notorious for demanding long hours of its workers—start considering covering this benefit, Harvard Law School Professor Glenn Cohen questioned the message the new benefit is sending. "Would potential female associates welcome this option knowing that they can work hard early on and still reproduce, if they so desire, later on? Or would they take this as a signal that the firm thinks that working there as an associate and pregnancy are incompatible?" he wrote on his blog. [...]

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Tags

bioethics   health law policy   human subjects research   i. glenn cohen   public health   regulation