Services favouring female work as elicited through a best-worst technique

Motherhood and childcare can limit women’s ability to work and gain economic benefit. The more women’s working times and duties are compatible with their personal time and engagements, the more likely it is that they will be able to manage both labour and family. The offer of specific public services and the ways in which work activities are organized could ease female employment and, in particular, mothers’ ability to work outside their homes. But what are the services and organisational elasticities that could ease the family lives of employed women? In this paper, we present the results of a survey conducted in 2014 on a sample of women working in public bodies in Padua. The women were asked to express their preferences among a set of services designed to favour female work. The results, as well as suggestions for future research, are discussed.