Dr Pauline Rose Clance always felt insecure about her place in graduate school, despite the lofty achievements that got her there. “I would take an important examination and be very afraid that I had failed. I remembered all I did not know rather than what I did. My friends began to be sick of my worrying, so I kept my doubts more to myself.”

When Clance began teaching, she discovered that hundreds of people – especially women – were spiralling towards the same conclusion: they simply weren’t good enough and the intellectual facade that they had fooled their peers into believing was moments away from crashing down. At any moment, and by any means possible, they were surely going to be exposed for what they were: imposters. 

Or at least, what they thought they were.  

What is imposter syndrome?

In 1978 Clance, alongside fellow psychologist Suzanne Imes, published a paper that explored the feeling of inadequacy that plagues high-achieving people in work and academia. They coined the term ‘imposter phenomenon’, which slowly – to Clance’s dismay – has been rebranded as ‘imposter syndrome’. 

Those who suffer from it may attribute their accomplishments to luck over ability, while also fearing that they will be outed as a fraud. “Why do so many bright women, despite consistent and impressive evidence to the contrary,” say Clance and Imes, “continue to see themselves as impostors who pretend to be bright but who really are not?”

Who feels it?

You’ve started a new job and you just can’t quite seem to shake that nagging feeling that you aren’t as capable as everyone else. Or maybe you’ve been promoted, or excelled in an exam, but feel that you couldn’t possibly have achieved it through your own merit. These are just a few scenarios where the imposter phenomenon reveals itself. 

Imes and Clance initially focused on its prevalence among women. In their first paper, they hypothesised that women in their sample were particularly prone due to the biases they face day to day: “Since success for women is contraindicated by societal expectations and their own internalised self-evaluations, it is not surprising that women in our sample need to find explanation for their accomplishments other than their own intelligence – such as fooling other people.”

Further research has been conducted to explore how imposter phenomenon disproportionately affects marginalised groups, such as people of colour, and those who experience intersectional oppressions. For example, they may feel like an imposter even more due to lack of representation in senior leadership or reinforced negative stereotypes.

The phenomenon can affect anyone – no matter their background, gender or ability. In fact, it’s something that one-third of young people suffer from, and 70% of everyone else will likely experience at some point in their lives. However, it’s worth noting that “though imposter syndrome takes no prisoners, people from black and ethnic minority communities [and women] are particularly vulnerable to its hold.”

Why is it facing criticism? 

Although Imes and Clance stress that imposter syndrome is a product of culture – that’s why it appears so often in marginalised groups – some are worried that this important factor is being ignored. 

“For women of colour, self-doubt and the feeling that we don’t belong in corporate workplaces can be even more pronounced,” say Ruchika Tulshyan and Jodi-Ann Burey for Harvard Business Review. “Many of us across the world are implicitly, if not explicitly, told we don’t belong in white and male-dominated workplaces.” 

When feelings of not belonging are exacerbated in a work environment due to unconscious biases, thoughts of inadequacy and doubting your competence can fester and grow.

However, the label of ‘imposter syndrome’, Tulshyan and Burey argue, puts the onus on professional women to deal with it as if it’s their own pathology, rather than senior executives fixing the external factors that are making them feel this way. “Workplaces remain misdirected toward seeking individual solutions for issues disproportionately caused by systems of discrimination and abuses of power.”

What can be done about it? 

Success won’t necessarily stop feelings of imposter syndrome. Even Maya Angelou experienced it: “I have written eleven books, but each time I think, Uh-oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody.” 

Tulshyan and Burey argue that it would be best solved by “leaders creating a culture for women and people of colour that addresses systemic bias and racism”, but Clance herself is dissatisfied with how the term has increasingly become exclusively associated with the systemic issues that women face in the workplace, rather than a feeling that anyone can possess.

Further reading on Imposter Syndrome

• Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome – Harvard Business Review
• The Imposter Cure: How to stop feeling like a fraud and escape the mind-trap of imposter syndrome – Dr Jessamy Hibberd 
• The Imposter Phenomenon in High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention – Pauline Rose Clance & Suzanne Imes