Both Katty Kay and Claire Shipman have known incredible success over their careers. As top reporters for BBC America (Kay) and ABC (Shipman), both have had the opportunity to connect with countless women across a multitude of fields.

Whether talking with athletes, executives, or researchers, they noticed a common trait all these influential and successful women had in common: self doubt. Perhaps more popularly known as “imposter syndrome.”

In 2014, the pair teamed together to outline their observations in “The Confidence Gap.” While Kay and Shipman found a multitude of reasons for despair, they took heart in findings showing that if the self-doubt can be eliminated, women are able to perform at the highest level.

Examining a study by research psychologist Zachary Estes, they highlight findings showing that “the natural result of low confidence is inaction.”

This, they argue, is a key insight for women. Whether putting their hand up in class or applying for a job, women are less likely to act unless they have absolute confidence in their decision.

Take an example cited by Kay and Shipman. In a personnel record analysis conducted by Hewlett-Packard, the company found that women would only apply for a promotion if they felt they ticked the boxes for 100 percent of the position’s requirements. Compare that to statistics from their male colleagues, who would apply even if they matched only 60 percent of the stated criterion.

In the words of Kay and Shipman, “Underqualified and underprepared men don’t think twice about leaning in. Overqualified and overprepared, too many women still hold back.”

Kay and Shipman conclude that “when we do act, even if it’s because we’re forced to, we perform just as well as men do.”

Is “The Confidence Gap” the Full Story?

The fact that we’re still talking about “The Confidence Gap” five years after it was published is a sure sign that Kay and Shipman clearly struck a chord. On the other hand, one article can hardly tell the whole story — as Jessica Valenti points out in a follow-up she wrote for the Guardian. In her response, Valenti argues that it’s not enough to devise individual coping strategies to help women “lean in.”

While Kay and Shipman acknowledge the double standards for women in the workplace, Valenti emphasizes its role in holding women back. Where assertive men who exude confidence are respected and emulated by male colleagues, assertive and confident women can appear bossy, threatening, or cold.

For Valenti, “quick fixes” are insufficient. “You can’t self-help away deeply-ingrained structural discrimination,” she argues.

In a more recent — and more nuanced — response in the Atlantic, Stéphanie Thomson argues that, “The confidence gap seems to be a classic case of mistaking the symptom — women’s apparent inability to promote themselves — for the cause.”

She cites Hannah Riley Bowles from Harvard Kennedy School: “The problem is when you stop there and say, ‘Okay, well, women just need to be more like men.’ The story of why women are more modest than men is much more complicated than that.”

Thomson goes on to highlight the risks associated with women acting in a more dominant or assertive way in the workplace — including the perceptions that Kay and Shipman glossed over, such as women appearing bossy, being considered unpleasant, or unlikeable.

Our expectations for women are not only that they be competent, not only that they excel and work hard, not only that they assert themselves — but we also expect that women should be likeable, nonthreatening, and approachable.

A study conducted across three European business schools found that “women were able to translate their self-confident image into influence only when they also displayed high prosocial orientation, or the motivation to benefit others.”

What are your thoughts?

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