Technology, Fertility and Public Policy: A Structural Perspective on Human Egg Freezing and Gender Equality

Abstract

Marketed as the smart way of planning career and reproduction, fertility "insurance" technologies aimed at the fertile women ("social egg freezing") is becoming big business. Drawing on the work of political theorists Iris Marion Young and Sally Haslanger, I develop a structural perspective on the promotion of social egg freezing as a means of better managing career prospects. I critically engage with the work of prominent ethicists, such as Julian Savulescu and others, who advocate the promotion of social egg freezing as a resource for increasing gender equality in the workplace. In so doing, I argue for public policy design with a wider structural focus.