Investigating the Perceived Impact of Maternity on Software Engineering: a Women's Perspective

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.