Confidence in Competence
Introduction
Is “imposter syndrome” simply the new hysteria?
It seems to be something women are offered as a diagnosis for what’s wrong with them - but in reality is a result of her surroundings, not her innards. The more I read about it, the more “imposter syndrome” seems to be a socially acceptable way to tell your direct report that her problems are all in her head - poor dear.
For the uninitiated, this pathologising of women has a very long history (Tasca et al., 2012), with many illnesses being suggested for what is wrong with us poor dears. One of my personal favourites is the 'wandering womb', also called 'hysteria'. Found as far back as the ancient Greeks, and subsequently re-branded across time and cultures as the generations went by, we can still hear remnants in our stereotypes of women today (e.g., women are crazy, emotional, hysterical, etc.).
A wonderful capture of this 'illness' is by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in her short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper". In it, we see the main character struggle against the patriarchal desire to pathologise women like herself who wished to work, to develop their intellect, to write, to be artists - essentially women who did not want to behave as they were expected. As the author of this piece points out, "a diagnosis can be a weapon used as a way to control and discipline the rebellion of an entire demographic," (Kapsalis, 2017).
When I read the academic literature on imposter phenomenon, a few interesting things stand out. Perhaps most glaring is the lack of consensus on measures and data collection. As one recent review recently put it, there’s a need “to establish new impostor phenomenon measures, conduct more quantitative research with diverse samples, and create culturally tailored interventions,” (Cokley et al., 2024).
I think we’ll leave that narrative behind here. Let’s instead focus on something that does have robust measures, is generally accepted across interdisciplinary research, and offers real world application with positive outcomes. And also doesn’t lean so heavily on tropes about women.
Self-efficacy
This refers to the “beliefs people hold about their abilities to exercise control over events; … contributes to action-readiness and positive change behaviour and positively impacts individual learning and goal achievement,” (Van den Heuvel et al., 2015, p.5). Consistently linked to lower levels of burnout and higher levels of work engagement, self-efficacy is particularly important when one has to cope with failures, difficulties and has to face challenging situations (Mäkikangas et al., 2022). Incidentally, some research has showed that gender microaggressions negatively influenced women’s self-efficacy and subjective feelings of competence in their workplace, (Algner & Lorenz, 2022; Jones et al., 2014). That sounds familiar.
Perhaps it’s becoming clearer why it’s much more useful to discuss ‘self-efficacy’ than ‘confidence’ (or the lack thereof) in women. It’s useful, valuable, and practical to understand this personal resource and how to strengthen it rather than engage in a quick bit of self-flagellation while practicing power poses in the company toilets.
(I’m also tired of seeing individual solutions being sold to women when the issue is structural.)
How can I develop my self-efficacy?
You’ll be pleased to hear that there are some evidence-based strategies which can enhance this important personal resource. Here are three you can engage in at work:
role modelling - this involves learning via seeing others demonstrate effective behaviour
verbal persuasion - this involves things like verbal statements, feedback, and encouragement from others; those ‘others’ must have some expertise and opinions you trust
mastery experiences - this involves doing well at tasks; can be done by breaking larger tasks into smaller steps that are more easily achievable; involves learning
Individual actions
As self-efficacy is to do with belief in one’s abilities, a useful place to begin may include identifying skill areas you wish to improve. Consider this through categories like:
Industry specific skills - e.g., qualifications specific to your role or industry
General business skills - e.g., project management, strategic planning, operational efficiency
Transversal skills - e.g., communication, adaptability, teamwork
As a part of this exercise, you may engage in the aforementioned ‘verbal persuasion’ by talking to someone whose opinion you trust and value at work. Getting their input on skill areas that would be useful for you to focus on, along with some words of encouragement, is a good place to begin.
Once you have a goal, you need to wrap a plan around that goal. This is where you can engage in ‘role modelling’ and ‘mastery experiences’. With any luck, there will be someone at your work who does the skill you’ve identified well. Engaging with them will help you learn, informally and socially, how to develop and improve this skill. A light-touch version of this may look like simply having a conversation to ask some technical questions. A more involved approach may look like a peer-mentorship over the course of a few months.
Another important aspect to plan here is the actual process of achieving a goal. That includes what the goal is, but also what resources you need to get there, how you’ll deal with obstacles, what success will look like, etc. For example, if the skill you wish to develop is project management and your goal is to earn a globally recognised qualification, consider the necessary resources. This includes time to study, cost of a course, opportunity to practice what you’re learning, and so on. Foreseeing obstacles (e.g., time pressures) and planning ahead to mitigate them as much as possible also helps in breaking the overall task down into achievable chunks, even when the pressure is on.
Final thoughts
Confidence in one’s abilities is important. Feeling as though you are not capable of achieving a goal is unpleasant, at best. Wrapping a narrative around it that sounds like an echo of gendered tropes is deeply unhelpful - and lazy on the part of whoever offers you such advice. If you lack confidence in an area, that isn’t some essential lack in your DNA - it’s a lack of the resources required to master and demonstrate that skill. The good news is that skills can be learned, and you are a learning machine. By developing your competence, you’ll see your confidence develop alongside it - no self-flagellation nor patriarchal pathologising required.
Please share widely with professional women you know.
Work Cited
Algner, M., & Lorenz, T. (2022). You’re Prettier When You Smile: Construction and Validation of a Questionnaire to Assess Microaggressions Against Women in the Workplace. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.809862
Cokley, K. O., Bernard, D. L., Stone-Sabali, S., & Awad, G. H. (2024). Impostor phenomenon in Racially/Ethnically Minoritized Groups: Current knowledge and future directions. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-081122-015724
Jones, K., Stewart, K., King, E., Morgan, W. B., Gilrane, V., & Hylton, K. (2014). Negative consequence of benevolent sexism on efficacy and performance. Gender in Management an International Journal, 29(3), 171–189. https://doi.org/10.1108/gm-07-2013-0086
Kapsalis, Terri. (2019, April 12). Hysteria, Witches, and the Wandering Uterus: A Brief history. Literary Hub.
Mäkikangas, A., Juutinen, S., Mäkiniemi, J., Sjöblom, K., & Oksanen, A. (2022). Work engagement and its antecedents in remote work: A person-centered view. Work & Stress, 36(4), 392–416. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2022.2080777
Tasca, C., Rapetti, M., Carta, M. G., & Fadda, B. (2012). Women and hysteria in the history of mental health. Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health, 8(1), 110–119. https://doi.org/10.2174/1745017901208010110
Van Den Heuvel, M., Demerouti, E., & Peeters, M. C. W. (2015). The job crafting intervention: Effects on job resources, self‐efficacy, and affective well‐being. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 88(3), 511–532. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12128