Background: Several researchers report the impact of gender on software development teams, especially in relation to women. In general, women are under-represented on these teams and face challenges and difficulties in their workplaces. When it comes to women who are mothers, these challenges can be amplified and directly impact these women's professional lives, both in industry and academia. However, little is known about women ICT practitioners' perceptions of the challenges of maternity in their professional careers. Objective: This paper investigates mothers' challenges and difficulties in global software development teams. Method: We conducted a survey with women ICT practitioners who work in academia and global technology companies. We surveyed 141 mothers from different countries and employed mixed methods to analyze the data. Results: Our findings reveal that women face sociocultural challenges, including work-life balance issues, bad jokes, and moral harassment. Furthermore, few women occupy leadership positions in software teams, and most reported that they did not have a support network during and after maternity leave, feeling overloaded. The surveyed women suggested a set of actions to reduce the challenges they face in their workplaces, such as: i) changing culture; ii) creating a code of conduct for men; iii) more empathy; iv) creating childcare within companies; and v) creating opportunities/programs for women in the software industry and academia. Conclusion: Adding to the underrepresentation of ICT roles, women also face many challenges in one important phase of women's lives, maternity. Our findings explore these challenges and can help organizations in developing policies to minimize them. Furthermore, it can help raise awareness of co-workers and bosses, toward a more friendly and inclusive workplace.

翻译：背景：多位研究者报告了性别对软件开发团队的影响，尤其是对女性从业者的影响。总体而言，女性在这些团队中代表性不足，并在工作场所面临各种挑战和困难。对于身为母亲的女性而言，这些挑战可能被放大，并直接影响她们在产业界和学术界的职业生涯。然而，关于女性信息通信技术从业者对生育对其职业生涯影响的认知研究尚不充分。目的：本文旨在探究母亲在全球软件开发团队中面临的挑战与困难。方法：我们对在学术界和全球科技企业工作的女性信息通信技术从业者进行了一项问卷调查。共调查了来自不同国家的141位母亲，并采用混合方法对数据进行分析。结果：研究结果显示，女性面临社会文化挑战，包括工作与生活平衡问题、不当玩笑和道德骚扰。此外，仅有少数女性在软件团队中担任领导职务，且大多数受访者表示在产假期间及之后缺乏支持网络，感到不堪重负。受访女性提出了一系列减少工作场所挑战的行动建议，包括：i）改变文化；ii）制定针对男性的行为准则；iii）增强同理心；iv）在企业内设立托儿设施；v）为软件产业界和学术界的女性创造机会/项目。结论：除信息通信技术岗位代表性不足外，女性在人生重要阶段——生育期——还面临诸多挑战。我们的研究结果揭示了这些挑战，有助于组织制定相关政策以减轻其影响。同时，该研究也有助于提高同事和主管的认知，促进构建更友好、更具包容性的工作环境。