Why Women Experience More Imposter Syndrome Than Men, And Why It’s Not a Confidence Issue
Women don’t doubt themselves more because they lack ability, they doubt themselves because leadership norms still send mixed signals about legitimacy.
Imposter syndrome is often framed as a personal confidence problem.
A quiet feeling of not quite deserving one’s role or success, despite clear evidence of competence.
Yet one pattern appears consistently across organisations and sectors:
women experience imposter syndrome more frequently, and often more intensely, than men.
This is not about fragility.
And it’s not something women simply need to “fix”.
It’s about context.
What the data shows
Research across professions consistently highlights a gender gap.
Large-scale studies show that women score higher on measures of imposter feelings than men, even when experience, education, and performance levels are comparable. Workplace surveys echo this reality: more than half of professional women report having experienced imposter syndrome at some point in their career, compared with a significantly smaller proportion of men.
Many women also report that these feelings influence concrete behaviours:
hesitating before applying for roles, downplaying achievements, or waiting longer before feeling “ready”.
This makes imposter syndrome not just a personal experience, but a leadership and talent issue.
Why women doubt more, beyond confidence
From an early age, many women are encouraged to:
do the work thoroughly,
be reliable,
avoid over-claiming,
and wait for validation rather than assume it.
Competence is encouraged.
Entitlement is not.
Later, in professional environments, this often meets leadership norms that still favour certainty, assertiveness, and self-promotion, behaviours that tend to be interpreted differently depending on who displays them.
Women learn to navigate a narrow space:
be confident, but not too confident;
be visible, but not self-promoting;
be competent, but remain modest.
In this context, self-doubt is not irrational.
It is adaptive.
Visibility without safety
Women in leadership roles are often more visible and more scrutinised.
They are noticed, but not always supported in the same way.
This combination increases self-monitoring:
Am I legitimate? Am I doing this right? Do I really belong here?
Imposter syndrome thrives where performance is visible but belonging feels conditional.
Why “fixing women” isn’t the answer
Many organisational responses focus on helping women be more confident, more assertive, or more vocal.
These tools can be useful, but they address symptoms, not causes.
Women do not doubt because they lack competence.
They doubt because the environment often sends mixed signals about legitimacy, success, and acceptable leadership styles.
Imposter syndrome is less an individual flaw than a signal about culture, expectations, and recognition.
What leaders can take from this
When capable people consistently question their place, it’s worth asking:
How clear are our expectations?
How fairly do we recognise contribution?
How safe is it to lead differently?
Reducing imposter syndrome is not about encouraging people to speak louder.
It’s about creating conditions where they no longer need to question whether they belong.
That shift benefits not only women, but the quality, diversity, and sustainability of leadership overall.
Join the conversation
If this resonates, we’ll be exploring these dynamics in more depth in our upcoming webinar
“Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: Why Women Doubt More Than Men.”
It’s a space to unpack the mechanisms behind self-doubt, put words on lived experience, and explore practical ways to move from self-questioning to self-trust, individually and collectively.
You’re warmly invited to join the conversation.