Earlier this year, I started hearing about “imposter syndrome” and to be honest I had not come across it before. It seemed to be coming from more females than males, so I looked it up.
Imposter syndrome is a constant feeling of self doubt and insecurity and a fear of being found out to be a fraud even though that person is a high achiever. This syndrome was identified more than 30 years ago, in 1978 by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes. At first it was thought that this affected only women but in subsequent research it has shown that men are also affected. Due to the biological nature of women, they are more susceptible because they produce less testosterone which is the confidence hormone. What I was surprised to read was a study by Natwest that 60% of women put off starting a business due to imposter syndrome. This is terrible. One more hurdle for females to overcome.