Imposter Syndrome refers to people who are successful by external standards, but have an illusion of personal incompetence. It’s estimated that a whopping 70 percent of people will experience it at least once in their lives.
It’s well documented that many women suffer from this on a regular basis at work, and I can attest to that as a working mother (who has returned to work twice). I suffer from the undeniable feeling that I am about to be rumbled. Constantly.
Nicola Sturgeon recently admitted to feelings of self-doubt saying, “I don’t think there is a woman alive, particularly working-class women, who don’t experience that at some point in their lives, and probably quite regularly,” It did get me thinking though: surely men experience similar feelings of self-doubt? How gender biased is Imposter Syndrome? Do men and women experience it in the same way, and do they just handle the experience of it differently?