The term imposter syndrome, or the internal experience of believing you are not as competent as others consider you to be, was coined in the 1970s. Still, it’s become an even more significant part of the conversation over the last ten years. Although it can affect people who identify as any gender, it has always been more associated with women, still relatively new additions to the workforce.

What is imposter syndrome?

Imposter syndrome is psychological. Outward markers of success, like compensation, titles, or fancy degrees, don’t matter. Imposter syndrome tells the sufferer that  she’s a fraud.

Is imposter syndrome real?

Is it imposture syndrome or work culture that makes women feel small?

It’s true that many of us are perfectionists and that the expectations we have about how certain milestones of our careers might look or feel are a lot different than the reality. I think that’s normal. It’s a universal human experience to get to a certain place in our lives and feel a little unsure of ourselves, just like how many of us imagined that once we turned a certain age, we would somehow immediately feel like “real adults” who have everything figured out.

Sometimes, like in the Wizard of Oz, we pull back the curtain just to find out everyone’s been faking it all along.

Imposter syndrome and women leaders

But I would argue that the problem isn’t that women, especially women of color, are unprepared. If we’re framing the conversation around a woman’s internal dialogue, we’re playing into a narrative that inevitably puts her at a disadvantage.

Ruchika Tulshyan and Jodi-Ann Burey capture this idea perfectly in their Harvard Business Review article, Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome:

“Imposter syndrome directs our view toward fixing women at work instead of fixing the places where women work.”

Let’s go back to when the concept of imposter syndrome was developed: the 1970s.

Women entered the workplace en masse roughly 30 years before World War II. They still had to have their husband’s signatures to get a loan from the bank. The Civil Rights Act was roughly a decade old; it’s be many more years until women of color would break the glass ceiling in any meaningful capacity.

In 2022 that all might seem like ancient history, but it’s not that long ago. In the span of our or our parents’ lifetimes, the world looked a lot different than it does today.

So, we’re not hysterical for feeling out of place even when we know we’ve worked our butts off to get where we are in our professional lives. Many of us look around the room and don’t see many other people who look like us.

The truth is, we aren’t meant to fit neatly into this world. We’re not imposters; we’re interlopers navigating a Eurocentric, masculine, and heteronormative work environment. Even as company demographics evolve, we grapple with fully owning our competence because the environment undermines our confidence. Meanwhile, confidence seems effortless for those the system was designed to uplift.

Redefining the narrative

Self-doubt and learning curves are normal; it takes time to feel comfortable in positions of power. However, if you’ve been historically marginalized, I encourage you to acknowledge the impact of the system. It’s not all in your head.

You don’t have to cure yourself of imposter syndrome. You might not have a syndrome at all. It is the culture at large that is still, even after all these years, trying to purge itself of a history of toxicity and bias.

Take what you need as you process your feelings, whatever they may be around this subject. Rest, hydration, prayer, kickboxing…anything to fortify you as you continue to be your badass self. I am here for you if you need support, advice, or just to talk.

I see you, and I affirm you.

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