Earlier this week, corporate giant Apple announced a new policy of paying for female employees to have their eggs frozen, should they wish.

"Apple cares deeply about our employees and their families, and we are always looking at new ways our health programmes can meet their needs," the company said in a statement released on Wednesday.

"We continue to expand our benefits for women, with a new extended maternity leave policy, along with cyropreservation and egg storage as part of our extensive support for infertility treatments ... We want to empower women at Apple to do the best work of their lives as they care for loved ones and raise their families."

Facebook, another behemoth of the tech world, already offers employees up to $20,000-worth of fertility treatments, including egg freezing.

Both companies state the intention behind the policy is to attract and keep female employees, who are under-represented across the industry (Apple's workforce is 70 per cent male, while Facebook is just behind at 69 per cent). But the reaction has been mixed. 

Zoe Williams of the Guardian has denounced the scheme as evidence of "old school misogyny" which plagues the tech industry.

She suggests that it is just one indication of a system that is inherently flawed in its understanding of women as "inconvenient, biddable, lesser", and argues that it is invasive for an employer to have a say over when, or if, a woman should choose to have children.

"If you want to persuade a woman that her work is compatible with having a family, the first thing you must accept is that it's none of your business whether she wants a family or not," Williams says.

So is the move a positive step towards equality in the workplace through supporting women's healthcare needs, as Apple and Facebook contend, or does it just serve to highlight the inequalities which exist? 

Many have pointed out that it's a lot harder for women to conceive later in life via IVF, and the risk of complications is higher. The offer of egg freezing might imply an expectation on the part of the company - that women should delay pregnancy and family life in order to progress at work.

Natalie Collins, a gender justice specialist, says the very idea of offering to freeze women's eggs is "a very simplistic solution to a very complex problem".

"I feel uncomfortable that an employer is getting that involved in a woman's fertility. Why is it their business when a woman gets pregnant? The problem is that the system is set up for people who don't have children," she told Christian Today.

"We need a different structure. Part of the issue is that the only way women are expected to get on in these companies is to essentially give up their lives in order to succeed in a work context. It's a question of values, and how companies could work harder to ensure that people with children are able to contribute fully to the organisation."

Jenny Baker, author of Equals: Enjoying gender eqality in all areas of life, agrees. She says employers should have "family-friendly working policies" and be actively encouraging both men and women to take time out to be good parents, rather than simply enabling women to delay pregnancy.

"I use the phrase 'I don't think women can have it all, but they can share it all'," she says.

"Women having a career, a family, a perfect home and ample leisure time – that's an impossibility. But if men and women are prepared to share those things between them, then they can have fulfilled lives at home and at work – but it takes compromise and sacrifice on every part."

As for being the 'great equaliser', Baker says a better attempt would be to pursue flexible working hours for men and women.

"It seems imbalanced," she says. "It's all about women, and doesn't address the fact that both men and women are parents, and dad being at work is as much of an issue as mum."

"It's great that women can reach top positions now, but we still haven't seen men taking as much responsibility," Collins adds.

"It seems very superficial. It says something about women having to sacrifice yet another thing in order to get on in a company like Apple or Facebook – is that really the right way forward?"