"When Ilona Maher was asked how she deals with imposter syndrome, the 2024 Olympic Medalist delivered a flawless mic drop moment that made us love her even more. “I don’t have that,” she said. “I don’t know what that is,” she added. “It’s like when you don’t feel like you deserve it, right?… I feel like I deserve what I’ve gotten. I think that I’ve worked very hard.”
Get 70% off of select areas until March 3!
Maher is obviously not the first deserving person who has been asked about imposter syndrome—this has been a buzzy topic for years now. It is a normal human emotion to feel self-doubt from time to time, yet the term “imposter syndrome” suggests it’s a much larger force in our lives.
The irony lies in the fact that women are always the ones who are centered in these conversations about feeling underqualified or underprepared. But that doesn’t match up with what women in the workplace are truly navigating: limited opportunities for advancement, a persistent wage gap, countless biases and barriers, and a system that is still very much stacked against our success. In light of all that, women are actually overprepared and overqualified for their stations. So, why does the imposter syndrome myth persist? And can we ever make it go away? We’re breaking it down.
This isn’t the first time imposter syndrome has gotten pushback
The concept of imposter syndrome (also known as “imposter phenomenon”) dates back to a 1978 study of highly successful women, yet it has been popularized—and also examined critically—in the past few years. A Harvard Business Review piece from 2021, for example, urged the public to “stop telling women they have imposter syndrome” and pointed to the very real, very pervasive systemic biases that work against women, particularly Women of Color. The authors of the piece challenge us to collectively reexamine long-held ideas about what it means to be professional and competent, citing our societal tendency to conflate confidence with competence. But confidence isn’t always a virtue; sometimes, it’s the byproduct of a system that heavily caters to you.
That’s the crux of this imposter syndrome debate: It doesn’t acknowledge the larger picture. Instead, by putting the idea of imposter syndrome on women, by asking them about their experiences with it, and telling them that they must be feeling it, we’re suggesting that there’s something within them that needs fixing. But our energy should really be put toward acknowledging all the factors that hold women back.
Women are realizing how deeply the system is rigged against them
With a master’s degree (from the top journalism program in the world, no less) in hand, internship experience at several national brands, and writing samples that showed my talent, I knew I was an impressive candidate in the journalism market after graduate school. I’d been warned over and over again that the industry was a very competitive one, that there were far more candidates in search of roles than there were job vacancies—but I was also reassured by anyone who took a look at my resume that I was incredibly well-positioned.
“If anyone should be feeling imposter syndrome, it’s the people who’ve benefited from systemic inequities.”
To my annoyance, I made it to several final interview rounds, only to be passed over by white men. For years I wondered if it was me: Was I not good enough? Should I have tried harder? Now, I realize that as a woman (moreover, a woman of color), I’m simply not going to benefit from all the systemic biases that exist everywhere in our world.
Imposter syndrome is all about self-doubt, about wondering whether you truly belong in the room. But that’s not doing service to the true experience women face. Because the reality is, knowing what we know now, instead of looking around and thinking, “How did I find myself in this room, with this title, at this table?” it’s far more common for women to ask themselves, “How have I not made my way into more rooms? How have I been passed over for this many roles and promotions and deals when I’ve done more work and brought more to the table than the people who have been given these opportunities?”
Biases and inequalities are still obvious in the workplace
If you’re a woman, chances are you’ve been asked about your experience with imposter syndrome. Meanwhile, men (who are far more likely to benefit from both conscious and unconscious biases around ideas of leadership, work ethic, and power) are never the subject of these questions. Maher shared on Instagram that she gets asked about it often. She then asks, “Do you think they are asking NFL players [or] male politicians if they have imposter syndrome? Probably not.”
The unspoken truth of the matter is this: If anyone should be feeling imposter syndrome, it’s the people who’ve benefited from systemic inequities. After all, imposter syndrome is all about being granted opportunities you didn’t truly earn. Yet the nature of questioning women about imposter syndrome doesn’t match up to the reality most women face, which is the experience of having to work twice as hard for half as much.
“The nature of questioning women about imposter syndrome doesn’t match up to the reality most women face, which is the experience of having to work twice as hard for half as much.”
Far too many of us are undervalued, underappreciated, and underpaid… and now, we’re collectively realizing that we’re not failing. The system is failing us. We’ve found ourselves in a place where we can finally look back and examine all the lies we’ve been sold about our capabilities, what we deserve, and what it means to truly earn an opportunity. The imposter syndrome narrative doesn’t match up to the reality of what it means to be a woman moving through the professional world.
Women are finally claiming their success and owning it
Hustle culture essentially told us women could do anything if they simply worked hard enough, that the glass ceiling was a myth, and that there was no force capable of holding down a woman on a mission. And so we worked ourselves to exhaustion and burnout, only to find that the biases and inequalities were rooted too deep in the system for us to undo overnight. On top of that, we were essentially told that any level of success would usher in a case of imposter syndrome.
I’m not arguing that imposter syndrome doesn’t exist or that it can’t possibly be part of the equation. We’re all going to feel like we’re in over our heads or like we can’t quite measure up every once in a while. But the way we routinely bring it up, the way we put the idea that women, especially high-achieving women, must be experiencing imposter syndrome chronically, feels a bit like a denial of all the factors that hold women back, factors that exist outside their capabilities and qualifications.
Women are far more likely to feel overqualified and overworked, while their titles, salaries, and level of respect need to catch up. Now, thanks to all the acknowledgment of the barriers that exist between women and the accomplishments they’ve earned but haven’t fully claimed, we’re in a place where women are far more likely to say, “You know what? I’m not an imposter. In fact, I’m better and smarter and more prepared than I need to be for the position I’m in right now.” And that experience—that’s what we ought to be focusing on.
Zara Hanawalt, Contributing Writer
Zara Hanawalt is a freelance journalist and mom of two. She specializes in writing feminist, woman-centric content on motherhood, women’s health, work, entertainment, and lifestyle. She has written for outlets like Vogue, Marie Claire, Elle, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Shape, Parents, and more. In her free time, she enjoys travel, cooking, reading, and a good reality romance show.