Imposter Syndrome, AI and the Gender Gap Hiding in Plain Sight

Imposter Syndrome, AI and the Gender Gap Hiding in Plain Sight

Imposter syndrome is real and there’s a significant gender gap. The latest research suggests that this will be amplified by AI. The findings matter to anyone who wants to be part of an inclusive, high-performance workforce.

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In her 2017 book ‘What Happened’ Hillary Clinton wrote:

“Over the years I’ve hired and promoted a lot of young women and young men. Much of the time, this is how it went:

ME: I’d like you to take on a bigger role.

YOUNG MAN: I’m thrilled. I’ll do a great job. I won’t let you down.

YOUNG WOMAN: Are you sure I’m ready? I’m not sure. Maybe in a year?”

Let’s for a moment place this alongside a recent tale from Silicon Valley. In Karen Hao’s book ‘Empire of AI’, she recounts a conversation between Sam Altman and senior Open AI executive Greg Brockman, in which Altman asks Brockman to propose a killer interview question that would identify the kind of talent that they sought to hire. Brockman, who oversaw culture, nails it quickly: When was a time when you hacked a system – in a non-digital context – to get it to work for you?

The question was at the heart of the selection process. A process that selected 84% men. And let’s remember the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines hack as: “to gain access to or make use of by cleverness or circumvention.”

Men are rewarded for shortcuts and risk-taking

When we share these two examples at workshops they are met with an eye-rolling sense of familiarity. Women worry about being prepared for promotion, while men are promoted for shortcuts. Girls internalise the need for conscientiousness, boys are praised for risk-taking.

This may sound like a glib generalization but it’s not too far from what the hard evidence is telling us.

A major review from Frontiers in Psychology describes a well-established phenomenon called:

“Male hubris, female humility”

The paper states that men systematically give higher estimates of their own intelligence and ability than women do.

On reading this a colleague at Threshold – now a successful psychologist – pointed out that while her brothers were consistently told, “You can do this.” She felt that she got the message, “Be careful not to get this wrong.” While this may be anecdotal, increasing studies seem to back up this idea. From an early age, girls tend to internalise these messages from their environment.

Conscientiousness, perfectionism and imposter syndrome

A 2023 study of 4,719 university students by the University of Utrecht found that women scored consistently and significantly higher on conscientiousness. While conscientiousness has many benefits, it’s closely associated with perfectionism, which in turn is closely associated with stress and imposter syndrome.

Imposter syndrome matters because it correlates with poor mental health, burnout and an increased risk of dropping out. Not only is it significantly more likely to affect women, but a new study indicates that it’s particularly prevalent in a certain domain. You guessed it – Technology!

Imposter syndrome and women in technology

In a new study published in the Social Psychology of Education, Jiyun Elizabeth L. Shin explored the link between imposter syndrome and mental health for women enrolled in STEM graduate programmes, an umbrella term which includes digital technology. She found that 97.5% of participants reported at least moderate levels of impostor feelings. 41.3% reported above moderate levels of impostor feelings and a further 26.3% reported intense experiences.

Another study suggests that the hubristic superstar culture of the tech world is likely further to exacerbate the problem. Women are more likely to feel like imposters when working in fields that emphasise ‘natural brilliance.’

Imposter syndrome and the belief in natural brilliance

In the 2021 study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology, the researchers asked questions to gauge how much a given field was associated with natural brilliance such as, “being a top scholar of [my discipline] requires a special aptitude that just can’t be taught”. Or on the flipside, “I think that with the right amount of effort and dedication anyone can be a top scholar of [my discipline]”

Women are significantly more likely to feel imposter syndrome anyway, but the more the field is associated with natural brilliance, the wider the gap.

The hypothesis that emerges is that girls are conditioned to value conscientiousness and thoroughness; boys are conditioned to value shortcuts and natural brilliance. And that plays out in the workplace in a way that is likely to become amplified in an age where AI and digital technology dominate.

Now, this comes with the usual strong caveats that are needed for any social science. These are simply broad patterns; they are certainly not true of every individual case. We should never forget that. And we should not let broad societal patterns colour our assumptions about individuals. There are women who are highly adept with tech and men who are not. (Your author, for a start!) And of course it’s simply a hypothesis at this stage, but the emerging evidence is remarkably consistent.

AI and the gender gap

If women tend to be more conscientious and thorough and tend to feel like imposters in the world of tech while men value short cuts, you might assume that the data would show a gender gap when it comes to adopting AI. Alarmingly that’s exactly what several recent studies show.

Researchers at Harvard Business School / UC Berkeley Haas School of Business (2024) analysed 18 separate studies covering more than 140,000 people worldwide and found a remarkably consistent pattern. Women were about 20–25% less likely than men to use generative AI tools. Most worryingly this is consistent across country, age and occupation.

It’s hard to overstate just how much this matters in a world where organizations like Accenture and McKinsey are directly rewarding and promoting for evidence of AI usage – not the outcomes that are achieved, but usage per se.

It’s tempting to believe that the arc of history naturally bends towards equality. But the latest evidence suggests that it doesn’t. And current trends risk making the situation worse. Inequality across gender means wasted potential and unhealthy cultures at an organizational level; and serious damage to wellbeing at an individual level.

Stories and self-limiting beliefs

As our colleague – a clinical psychologist – points out, the messages that we internalize from childhood form the story that we create for ourselves. They contribute towards the self-limiting rigid rules that we impose on ourselves: “I should always…” Or “I should never…”

A fixable problem

The frustration is that this is a problem that is readily fixable. The evidence shows that mentoring and coaching, especially female-to-female, make an immense difference. Mutually supportive small communities of peers are similarly powerful. For several years, since the publication of our book Be Bulletproof, we have helped countless male and female leaders to apply the proven techniques that liberate themselves from these unhelpful stories and self-limiting rules. The messages that we internalize from childhood are not immutable. But we can’t neutralize them without help.

The organizations that succeed will be those that recognise their responsibility to help their people to learn and grow as rounded leaders. To paraphrase Michelle Obama, the arc only bends towards equality if we bother to do something about it. That means organizations investing in the growth and self-belief of their people – regardless of gender.

To find out how we can help leaders in your organisation to be more impactful, influential and persuasive visit  www.threshold.co.uk