To all my dear women, this is your public service announcement: you don’t have impostor syndrome. You’re welcome.
I realize this is not a statement that aligns with some of the popular thinking today. But, diagnosing ourselves with a syndrome that describes feelings of inadequacy in a system that is designed to make us feel inadequate feels, frankly, ridiculous.
This Women’s History Month, I think it’s important to take a real look at where we are and how far we’ve come.
To this day, if someone says you do anything “like a girl,” we all understand that to be an insult. So, how is a girl supposed to feel powerful and capable in a society that associates anything relating to girlhood or femininity as weakness and incompetence?
Even with the progress that has been made, men hold the leadership positions in most large organizations, businesses and political offices. And, whether someone is qualified to hold such positions is often decided by men. Furthermore, some people — women included (clutching my pearls) — still believe women are not fit to lead.
If the world around you says you are not qualified, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise when you believe it.
But, when we do feel inadequate, because society has made every effort to make us feel that way, can we at least stop blaming ourselves?
Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code, said in a 2023 commencement speech at Smith College, a private liberal arts women’s college, that “impostor syndrome isn’t our problem to solve.”
Saujani said that impostor syndrome is a “reaction to women’s progress,” like many other ideas that take hold in a society at a given moment. When women start to break barriers or become independent, here comes a new idea to tell us that something is inherently wrong with how we think, feel and act.
Let’s agree as a collective, once and for all, that there is nothing wrong with us as women.
“The impostor scheme has deluded an entire generation of women into thinking that we’re somehow deficient,” Saujani wrote in Glamour magazine.
She added, “It makes sense to feel like you don’t fit in when you literally don’t fit in. In fact, it’s by design.”
Though history may have contributed to our underlying beliefs about innate female inferiority, the problem does not lie within us. The problem is in the idea that there is a problem at all.
Because someone else made the rules
It wasn’t until 1837 that Oberlin College began admitting women to its school; the first U.S. institution of higher learning to do so. That’s 60 years after the country was founded, and about 200 years after Harvard College was established in 1636. Women did not suddenly become more intelligent; they were finally allowed to pursue higher education and earn degrees.
Fast forward to today, when many women work outside of the home. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 74%, “the percent of the population working or looking for work — for all mothers with children under age 18 was 74% in 2024.”
For working mothers, school schedules and children’s medical visits can directly affect their professional schedules. That the school day ends at 3 and the work day ends at 5 does not feel like a recipe for success.
Then, when connections for promotions and new opportunities happen after regular hours, how are women with home-bound responsibilities supposed to keep up?
Add to that the fact that being a professional woman or a woman in leadership can be like walking a tightrope. Some look for you to be strong, bold or and no-nonsense. Others expect you to be soft, nurturing and kind.
It can feel like an unending number of competing ideas for how to be in a world where many have predetermined that a woman is not the ideal candidate anyway. See Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris.
I don’t know that changes to hairstyles, clothing or laughing would have changed the outcome much for either of them when so many could not imagine having a woman as president.
Because I care
Feeling like an impostor may have little to do with not being good enough and more to do with a desire to be our best.
There are lots of people who do an average job and do not lose any sleep over it; only a person who cares deeply about their work will be concerned about having what it takes to show up in excellence.
I have come to recognize that sometimes I feel inadequate because I don’t yet have all the experience or expertise to be as excellent as I would like to be. The keyword there is yet. I set high standards for myself, and I will work toward showing up better each day.
Women should not be diagnosed with a syndrome for wanting to do well in environments that were not designed with them in mind.
Today, I appreciate is all the women who push through those feelings of inadequacy to achieve anyway. It takes an admirable amount of courage to face one’s fears and insecurities, to walk into rooms and boardrooms where you know other people are doubting you. Kudos to all the women who keep showing up and pushing forward.
Contact Editor-in-Chief Camike Jones at 317-762-7850 or camikej@indyrecorder.com.
Camike Jones is the Editor-in-Chief of the Indianapolis Recorder. Born and raised in Indianapolis, Jones has a lifelong commitment to advocacy and telling stories that represent the community.
