Impostor syndrome is a response to a world that doesn’t believe in women

Impostor syndrome (originally defined, in 1978, as when “despite outstanding accomplishments, women [persist] in believing that they are really not bright and have fooled anyone who thinks otherwise”) has been a talking point for years. And while the discussion has been important, it has slowly reduced an all-too-real experience to a buzzword. As something that more often affects women – a recent study showed that 66% of women had experienced it, compared with just over half of men – perhaps it isn’t surprising it isn’t taken particularly seriously.

But now, new research has shown that the very real, very negative effects of impostor syndrome are felt not just at the workplace, but at home. Employees experiencing impostor syndrome suffer from emotional exhaustion, which leads to a conflict between work and family life and dissatisfaction with the latter. While the idea that an issue at work can affect you at home may sound unsurprising, researchers hope that the results will finally add “legitimacy to discussing impostor phenomenon as an important talent-development issue”. And I hope it will add legitimacy to the conversation about impostor syndrome more generally.

Impostor syndrome is increasingly framed as something that must be remedied by the women who experience it. We are told to pull ourselves up by our bra straps and that we simply have to realise the power that has been within us all along, as though we are the protagonists of a Disney film. Impostor syndrome is taken even less seriously when it is discussed in reference to women of colour, whom it affects more. The feelings of inadequacy that women of colour may harbour are twice as hard to escape because it is so often implied their achievements are down to “positive discrimination” – although, compared with other women, they often have to overcome more and greater hurdles in their careers.

For women in general, life is a never-ending juggling act of sky-high societal expectations, impossibly high expectations set by oneself and the unshakeable feeling you are falling behind in both. The best many of us manage is a convincing-looking but faked balance, performed with precision until exactly 5.30pm. But the frustration of this simply follows you home. We are held to these standards in all areas of life, so it is unsurprising that impostor syndrome bleeds into the home, where we are often undervalued, too. Just last week, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex was chastised for holding her baby in a way some people deemed incorrect – with criticism such as this, it is no wonder women constantly feel like they are underperforming.

It is crucial to remember that women are not born feeling less-than. But if you are continually treated as though you are, you eventually internalise it. And this is not merely a synonym for low confidence – impostor syndrome is the logical outcome of a world that was never designed for women to be successful. It is time we stopped seeing the problem as being women’s refusal to believe in themselves and rather a world that actively refuses to believe in women.