Opinion: What if, as a woman, I am not able to do it?

I start by asking myself this question as I take a deep breath as if trying to hold in place my stomach that seems to want to climb up my throat. The invitation to write for one of the largest newspapers in the country found me distracted on a Monday after lunch and catapulted me into an emotional state that, for those closest to internet memes, could be portrayed by the famous “how did I end up here, I just I’m six years old!”

In fact, I’m thirty-five, but the mixture of fear and vulnerability when I face this challenge even leads me to the anguish of realizing that I had followed the wrong person and lost my parents on a crowded beach or in a sale store on the eve of Christmas. How can the idea of ​​opportunity and recognition cause so much helplessness?

Aside from my personal experience, the truth is that this is not an uncommon feeling among women. Especially when it comes to work, it’s not hard to find a friend or acquaintance who never thinks she’s good enough at what she does, even if the facts indicate the absolute opposite.

“Somewhere, deep down, you don’t believe what they say. You think it’s a matter of time before you stumble and ‘they’ find out the truth. You shouldn’t be here. We knew you couldn’t do this. We should never have taken a chance on you.” It could have been said by me or many women I know, but these are the words of Joyce Roché, former Vice President of Global Marketing at Avon, just one of countless women whose unquestioned competence and success were not enough to prevent a long internal battle. against imposter syndrome.

You may have heard of the term, whose concept emerged in 1978 from a research by American psychologists Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes. Working at Georgia State University, they observed that many students who excelled academically admitted during counseling that they did not feel worthy of their success.

This phenomenon could be explained by the difference in the gender dynamics of the time, where a life surrounded by sexism, stereotypes and prejudice undermined women’s confidence. Although Clance’s research advanced in the following decades, showing that men also felt like imposters, current observations continue to point out gender differences when it comes to self-esteem and self-confidence.

In 2019, the Harvard Business Review published the result of a survey that analyzed thousands of assessments of executive leaders and although women were considered more effective in 84% of the measured competencies, when they were asked to rate themselves, the results changed. , with scores in confidence ratings being lower than those of men, particularly when participants were younger.

According to the survey data, the level of confidence of men and women in themselves only matches the age of 40.

Maturity is the weight that balances this scale, but until then, lack of opportunity, difficulty in finding successful models that resemble us or share our life experiences, as well as a trajectory in a context of systemic oppression are some factors that can take an individual a lifetime to recognize their own worth – and as you may have guessed, some social groups are far more affected than others.

I don’t know how many points on the trust table are still missing for me to feel worthy of occupying spaces I never imagined. But if this graph goes up and the opportunity was given to me – by a competent woman drawing her own successful trajectory, that is to say – I take a deep breath as many times as necessary and give myself the chance to at least try.

And if you are reading this text, it means that I was able, regardless of what comes next. Any mistake will be a learning that was only possible because I overcame the barrier of my own judgment. I hope this idea can help you win yours too.