Imposter Syndrome. A gender issue?

Imposter syndrome, the feeling of inadequacy or self-doubt despite evident success is one of the most common mental health issues in today’s workplace. It’s something that affects individuals regardless of gender with nearly 58% of employees experiencing feelings of self-doubt and failure that override their successes in their workplace.

It has however been observed that imposter syndrome may be more commonly reported among women. The ‘Working on Wellbeing’ survey of 2,500 UK workers in 2022 and showed that 21% of women suffered very frequently from imposter syndrome compared to just 12% of men.  A further study of 4,000 adults commissioned by Galaxy and the Young Women’s Trust in 2023 found that 62% of the women claimed to have hardly ever felt true confidence in their lives, with 53% struggling with unwarranted feelings of self-doubt, incompetence, and being underqualified. Comparatively, 54% of the men surveyed said they had never felt that way at all, with 63% admitting they only ever felt like it in the workplace.

Although imposter syndrome can affect individuals regardless of gender, there are specific issues that may disproportionately impact women. Some of these include:

1.     Societal Expectations: Women often face societal pressure to be perfect, nurturing, and accommodating, exacerbating feelings of inadequacy if they feel they don't meet these standards.

2.     Gender Bias: Women are more likely to be underestimated or overlooked, leading them to doubt their abilities and feel they don't belong in certain roles or industries.

3.     Tokenism: As a result of being the minority in male-dominated fields, women may feel they have to prove themselves constantly to be taken seriously.

4.     Perfectionism: Women are more likely to internalise perfectionist tendencies, set excessively high standards for themselves and feel like failures if they don't meet them.

5.     Work-Life Balance: Juggling multiple roles and responsibilities alongside professional aspirations can amplify feelings of inadequacy and impostorism.

6.     Lack of Representation: A lack of female leaders can make it difficult for women to envision themselves succeeding in similar roles.

7.     Microaggressions: Women may encounter subtle forms of discrimination such as being interrupted frequently or having their ideas dismissed, which can undermine their confidence and reinforce imposter syndrome.

8.     Stereotype Threat: Women may experience performance anxiety due to the fear of conforming to negative stereotypes about their gender's competence in certain fields.

9.     Internalised Sexism: Women who have internalised societal messages about their worth or capabilities based on their gender may struggle as they navigate professional environments.

10.  Imposter Syndrome Cycle: Women may find themselves in a cycle of imposter syndrome, where feelings of inadequacy lead to self-doubt and fear of failure, which in turn reinforces the belief that they are imposters.

Although imposter syndrome can affect anyone, the early exposure to negative beliefs and thought patterns means women may be more susceptible to the self-doubt that provides the basis for imposter syndrome. In the workplace they are often held to a higher standard than men, and are expected to be warm, caring and sociable whilst dealing with many other contradictory and clashing biases.

An understanding of the specific challenges faced by women can create more supportive environments and interventions to address imposter syndrome. This requires a multifaceted approach that includes building self-confidence, challenging societal norms and biases, fostering inclusive environments, providing mentorship and support networks, and promoting a culture of recognition and validation for achievements.

Women’s health – a priority for employers.

During 2022 there were over fifteen and a half million women in the UK workforce and, in areas such as health and social care and retail, female workers dominated. However, for many years there has been little awareness of the issues that can impact on women’s health.

Women can have complex and varying health concerns throughout their life including, fertility, miscarriage, pregnancy and menopause as well as endometriosis, breast or cervical cancer, post-natal depression and peri-menopausal anxiety. Despite the large number of women in the workforce however there is often a stigma around these issues with some women feeling so embarrassed or ill equipped to discuss things with their manager that they avoid the conversation all together!

Since the pandemic partnerships and parenting have become more equitable than ever before but the challenge of balancing work and home life still remains. Women often end up compromising on the quality of their personal and professional lives but in a competitive employment market expectations around health and wellbeing are growing. Now, if an employer is to build a truly diverse and inclusive workplace they need to support female health and wellbeing by being proactive in providing flexibility and choices that allow women to remain in or return to the workplace. Organisations that overlook these factors may well suffer from reduced productivity, engagement and retention levels as well as increases in absence or even skill gaps.

As we move further into 2023, it’s the perfect time to focus on making women’s health and wellbeing needs a greater priority for employers. Organisations that can demonstrate they are addressing the challenges women face by offering a more inclusive working environment, support, guidance and access to benefits and services, will retain their female staff and help them reach their full potential but also attract the best new female candidates.

Understanding infertility. The importance of Progesterone.

Amy Beckley, PhD, is the founder of a fertility testing company. She herself had a personal battle with infertility and suffered seven miscarriages before having two rounds of IVF, the second of which resulted in her son. Although Amy was able to access IVF, she realises how difficult this can be – it's a very expensive procedure, you have to be located near a clinic and be able to take leave from work for the treatments.

When Amy decided she wanted another child (without another round of IVF) she asked her doctor ‘Why can’t we figure out why I can’t have a successful pregnancy?  Lets have a conversation MD to scientist to try and figure it out’. As well as a PhD in Pharmacology, Amy had been studying hormone signalling for about ten years and with her background she realised that they were not tracking her cycle fully. It turned out she didn’t really need IVF because she had a hormone imbalance that meant her body was not making enough of the hormone needed to support pregnancy.

Amy thinks the problem is that doctors are very reliant on blood tests which is fine but when you have a hormone that is increasing and decreasing as the cycle goes on you miss certain things. Blood tests showed she was ovulating and making progesterone but not that the progesterone was falling too fast so by the time the embryo came to be implanted the uterine lining was starting drop off. It was a timing issue. Once Amy knew what the problem was she started taking an inexpensive progesterone supplement, with the result being her daughter.

Instead of letting her fertility issues consume her, Amy decided to empower other people with what she learned in the process by creating better diagnostic tests for people who want to build a family – to take science and hormone monitoring and changed it into something that can be done at home non-invasively.

Proov, is the first and only FDA-cleared test to confirm ovulation at home. It’s a suite of at home testing products that allows a woman to understand and track her menstrual cycle. It answers questions like how many eggs to I have left? Am I timing intercourse correctly? Am I ovulating successfully meaning do I have a high progesterone marker in urine though the entire implantation window and have a healthy cycle? Proov also provides other answers. Women are waiting longer to start families, they are having one child instead of two or three. By providing information such as how many eggs they have left and whether they should freeze the eggs if they want to put off starting a family woman means they have more information about their cycles and their bodies.

It’s not just about conceiving. If women have really heavy or painful periods, PMS or going through peri-menopause these are all cycles and hormone changes so the same balances that cause infertility can also cause these. Amy has been creating a platform where woman can understand their hormones try to optimise and balance their hormones. Once you have results you can take them to a GP or holistic health provider for further help.

It’s really about having the information and power. There was some recent research on teenagers where one set tracked their cycle and the other didn't. By just knowing and tracking their cycle the first group were less depressed and had less suicidal tendencies. They knew that based on their previous cycles they were going to start their period, that when they did that they felt depressed but that three days later they were back to normal. They knew that it was coming so could prepare themselves.

It can also help women in peri-menopause who may leave the workforce because they cant function at work, they cant take on the same mental capacity or remember things, are having hot flushes to know that your body is going though hormonal withdrawal.

You can find out more about Amy at Proovtest.com

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
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Undefeated Woman

Desange Kuenihira is the CEO and founder of unDEfeated, a non-profit organisation that provides education for underprivileged youth and supports single mothers in developing entrepreneurial skills so that they can start successful businesses to support their families.

Originally from Democratic Republic of Congo, at the age of two, Desange and her six siblings moved to a refugee camp in Uganda. In that camp, she had to fight for the life she wanted. She was told repeatedly that she was meaningless and that her only potential worth was the dowry a much older man who would pay to marry her as a pre-teen. Many of her friends were forced to marry strangers and have their children. Typically, the marriages wouldn’t last long, and soon the women returned to their parents with children, a ruined reputation, and no options for their futures.

Desange lived in Uganda for twelve years as a refugee before moving to the U.S. and becoming a U.S. citizen. Although she still faced many problems, she built her life in Utah and having people who believed in her potential meant she was able to determine her own future. She studied at the University of Utah and gained a Bachelor of Science in criminology and a Bachelor of Science in health, society, and policy, with a minor in entrepreneurship and pre- business.

Desange was one of the lucky ones and was given an opportunity to have a different future when she went to the United States but she always remembered the girls left behind. She founded unDEfeated for her friends and the countless young women in Uganda who don’t have someone valuing their worth. Her story of resilience and courage reflects the hardships faced by women in Uganda who often experience sexual abuse, poverty and child marriage and she hopes to break the cycle of poverty by creating opportunities for women to start and operate their own businesses.

Desange believes that education is the key to success and this is what will help Uganda move past being a poor country with an emerging economy and also close the significant educational disparity between men and women.

Find out more about Desange at Speakundefeated.org or her book Undefeated Woman is available at https://www.amazon.com/Undefeated-Woman-Desange-Kuenihira/dp/1956072063

    You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.

Redefinng midlife for women

Jacqueline or Jack Perez runs a digital platform dedicated to normalising ageing for women through highly curated content and women driven brands. Jack feels that ageism is the last ism left and it's the one we do mostly to ourselves.

Jack feels that it’s something that happens to a lot of women when we start to look in the mirror at a certain age and don't particularly like what is reflected back to us.  It could be a line, a wrinkle, a sag or an age spot but we start to feel ‘less than’ and to internalise bad self talk that we are not as valuable. In North America there is also a very user centric culture so it adds to the feeling of being devalued over time.

There is currently a big push in society around the science of longevity. This can be a challenge as we are often not very good at knowing how to live as we get older, primarily because we are very family centric. Kids grow up and leave home and you’re left with a relationship that's slightly festered over the years or on your own and wondering what do you do next. Both women and men in their 50’s are thinking that they could have 30 or 40 years of this, but 30 or 40 years of what?

In the UK we’ve seen what’s known as 3rd age phenomenon which is rethinking that.  There is a big zeitgeist of people who are excited by this stage in their lives, have been liberated from everything else, are old enough not to care sometimes but also to have the wherewithal to think ‘OK what could be next?’ They are looking for a source of information, a friendly face or place that relates to them where they and say ‘this is something that I could do or someone who I could be’.

At the moment we are in a unique position. The average lifespan of a white woman in the early 1900’s was 51. Although there were people who lived to their 80s or 90s this was not as a cohort or large sector of the population. Now is the first time that there is a very large number or a high concentration of people in this space. The Baby Boomers, the Gen X’s and now even the older Millenials are all entering this space and the exciting thing is that we get to define what that seed change looks like and the new paradigm. Women are hungry to look for the modeling of ‘what can my life look like in my 60s 70s and 80s?’ This is why Jack built the platform and brought together global thought leaders on the topics that are important to women in the extra years that they didn’t get 100 years ago.

The idea of having a community of liberated free thinkers seems to be quite exciting. Every day a new article gets pushed out about a relevant topic. It doesn’t shy away from the tough subjects but deals with them in an empowering, kind and productive manner. It’s not about shaming or scaring anyone rather its about providing valuable information that's actionable in the different areas. For example, if you’re looking in your closet as a 55 or 58 year old and asking ‘can I wear any of the stuff I used to wear when I was in my 30s or 40s?’ There are articles about fashion in mid life and beyond and article about skin care and makeup. The best place to start is the About page. Just scroll down so you can access articles from women around the world and find the topic that's relevant to you.

Jack found that when she was going through menopause herself she couldn't find any positive relevant information to help her so she started the platform because she didn't want other women to feel alone or scared. Loneliness and isolation are leading indicators of longevity – you will live longer if you have connections with other humans. Neither smoking, drinking nor being obese are not as dangerous to your health as being isolated and lonely.  They are also major causes of depression and also dementia. In a world where we are more connected we are increasingly isolated.

Jack earned her MBA from the University of Chicago and was then hired by Hewlett Packard in San Francisco where she worked for several years. She wasn't really corporate material though so in 1999 she left the corporate world and started a PR and marketing business with her then husband. It was the heyday of the late 90s with .com bubble and lots of venture capital money. It was a very buoyant environment but not at all sustainable in the longer term. Jack became a single mum late in life so started working in smaller companies in fractional executive roles that helped her spend more time with her child. She then went through the menopause and that's when she realised she needed to do something not for her but for everyone else!

There does seem to be a reappraisal of ones life at the time of menopause and there is science behind this. It's a time when women lose a lot of the hormones that make them maternal and want to take care of people. Post menopause many don't feel as maternal as they used to. Jack didn't realise just how tied she was to that feeling, need, drive or biological imperative. She had no idea how critical, crucial or all encompassing it was until it dissipated. Women can also become more vibrant at this time of life so if there is a mismatch in a relationship it can become more evident and, in the US, the highest number of divorces are issued by women aged 50 and above. There seems to be a lot of women who at 50 just say ‘I don't want to be married to you any more’ perhaps because the dream has changed or been fulfilled in a way.

The idea that we should be empowered to go out and start a new life is exciting. The problem and opportunity with a youth culture is that older people are often seen as wiser and are used as mentors. Younger people want to gain an edge and this often comes from people who have been there and done it before. Interestingly, the platform attracts younger people as well as the target market with half of the audience being under 45. Jack feels that this is because they are curious about what is coming so they are empowering themselves by learning.

You can find out more about Jack at www.kuellife.com or info@kuellife.com

    You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.