Fighting Back Against Imposter Syndrome
What is Imposter Syndrome?
“Red is sus” - a potential imposter from the video game “Among Us”
It is a phrase that covers any false feelings of not belonging at work, in school, or in social circles. For all women and women of color, these feelings are worsened and rooted in the reality of systemic socioeconomic inequities and real experiences of intersectional identity biases like racism, sexism, xenophobia, and transphobia.
Some ways these can show up in your thoughts about yourself:
“The only reason I got hired/accepted is because I’m (Latina/queer/woman/AfroLatina)”
“One day they are going to find out that I’m not actually that (smart/capable/useful)”
“I don’t get picked to lead projects because I’m not (good enough/skilled/connected)”
“I really need to catch up to (my peers/colleagues) because I am so behind/bad at (skill/wealth/negotiating)”
“I should do more (organizing lunches/ mentorship/working late) to show my value.”
We tackled these issues and dispelled some of these false ideas at our Be a Better Imposter event.
What can I do about my feelings of being an imposter?
First off, know you are not alone in being self-critical, know that you actually belong, there are real forces of bias at work that make you feel this way, and that you and others around you can do something about it. Here are our suggestions and things to keep in mind:
Visualize success not disaster.
Reward yourself for your big and your little wins..
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and ¡Que te valga madre!
Confidence doesn’t equal competence.
Stop using “just” and “I don’t know” from your writing and speech. It can minimize your worth to yourself and to others.
Track your successes to shake off your inner and outer critics.
Remind yourself you’re here because you deserve to be, not because someone gave you something.
Dig behind the imposter feeling to the true cause. E.g. Is the reason you’re not being picked to lead big projects because of you, or because no women get picked?
Recruit a buddy/ally to help advocate for you when your work/voice aren’t valued and give your inner critic a reality check.
Manage up and ask your work manager/mentor to help make system changes like pay equity and sharing non-rewarded/unpaid duties (like mentorship) equally to lift everyone up.
Where does Imposter Syndrome Come From?
The theory of Imposter syndrome was developed in the 70s by Drs. Clance and Imes. The research basically told women how to fix themselves. But when, women, especially women of color, and queer women of color don’t feel like they belong it has EVERYTHING to do with real life sexism, racism, classism, transphobia, homophobia and systemic socio-economic inequities that block our careers, educational, financial, and social success.
How do these gross systems get built?
We can start with the famous GI Bill of 1944, which in theory was made to help millions of veterans of World War II secure loans to buy homes and get through college. This bill in practice, actually had a lot of restrictions based on race, gender, and sexuality that made it nearly impossible for any veteran that wasn’t a straight white man to receive benefits, which meant many couldn’t accumulate generational wealth.
In addition, discriminatory immigration and citizenship policies make it harder for Spanish & Portuguese-speaking folks and immigrants to participate in society and receive benefits despite paying taxes and contributing to the economy.
We know that:
Latina women are paid 45% less than white men and 30% less than their white women counterparts, and Latina moms are paid 55% less than white fathers.
That’s an estimated average loss of a million dollars over a lifetime for any Latina.
And we know that increasing your education and changing jobs does NOT close the gap.
When looking at family units, white families have a median wealth 5x higher than that of Latinx families. BUT if the head of the household is a Latina, there is a 10x difference.
If you are part of the queer community and you’re a person of color, during the pandemic queer POC were twice as likely to have lost their jobs and 3x as likely to be unable to pay rent compared to straight white peers.
You can see why Latinas and Latinx families were less resilient when COVID hit with our unemployment spiking to 20% and worsened health outcomes due to COVID.
In the workplace and schools, imposter syndrome looks like unintentional or intentional bias both of which are harmful.
Latinas and women of color often get tokenized - they get added into projects and teams for ‘diversity sake’ but then our opinions and work aren’t valued.
For Latinas with a degree in science, 47% get mistaken for administrative or custodial staff in the workplace.
There’s also discrimination in hiring, pay packages, and even how our letters of recommendation get written.
There are real historical events and racist policies, past and present, as well as systems built upon white supremacist and misogynistic ideas with the goal is to keep white, upper class, men in power, and everyone else without it.
Leaders and Mentors can help
There are lots of things a leader or mentor can do to help. Here are just three.
If you’re a manager keep track of what each person on your team has been doing and accomplishing and encourage them to keep track too. Use this information to make sure that busy work like taking notes and unpaid work like mentoring new hires is distributed evenly. This also means making sure that high profile projects and giving recognition are happening for everybody on your team.
If you’re a mentor, be sure to point out when your mentees are expressing feelings of inadequacy and remind them of their successes and how those accomplishments didn’t magically happen without them.
And for all leaders, tackling discrimination at your organization gets to the root of why an employee would feel like an imposter like asking for pay equity and pay transparency. You can also push for racial equity training and ask to make diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy plans be as important to your organization as winning grants, or increasing revenue.