Abstract

In the wide national and international literature on work-life balance corporate policies, a neglected aspect is the effect that these measures produce on the workers at risk. The present study aims to fill this gap. The study is based on the survey results conducted on a sample of 5.074 workers in the Italian electricity sector, including the target group. The analysis focuses on three key variables according to the literature on new social risks: gender, care responsibilities and professional qualification. The results show how the corporate measures implemented struggle to produce the desired capacitating effects for reasons that can be traced back to the organizational aspects of the world of work and to a distortive culture of care that nevertheless produces gender inequalities and challenge the quality of the private and working life