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Breaking Up the Confidence Gender Gap
Amid a global push for women ' s rights , Sheetal Tahiramani explores the role of confidence in the gender gap and asks how we can help our daughters to succeed
With the # MeToo and ' Time ’ s up ’ movements in full force , award-winning female-led shows like Big Little Lies making headway , and Sheryl Sandberg ’ s Lean In becoming an everyday expression , the world is moving full steam ahead towards a gender-neutral life . As more and more countries and organisations strive for female empowerment , the world has seen a positive shift to gender equality . For instance , the gender gap in education has been waning in the last 20 years , with a higher rate of female enrolment in schools , whilst a Pew Research Centre analysis reveals that women make up at least 40 per cent of the workforce in more than 80 countries . Further studies demonstrate that when companies hire more women , they drive up their productivity and innovation . All the signs paint a glowing picture of the female population ’ s progress during the last few decades .
Yet , despite the significant progress and competency of women , we hear anecdotes of women hesitating before negotiating for a higher salary or promotion , not applying for that job , or feeling a lack of accomplishment in one of the hardest jobs in the world – raising children . We witness these stories amongst our friends , our colleagues , our mum friends , and even from ourselves . The feeling of ‘ not being good enough ’ is the relentless background buzz in a woman ’ s life that does not seem to go away – similar to that feeling of utter exhaustion in early parenthood .
The fact that the female population is less confident than its male peers was a finding discussed by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman , authors of The
Confidence Code . Their research exposed that men tend to overestimate their abilities , whereas women downplay them even when possessing similar levels of achievement . It ’ s not about a difference in personality traits . On the contrary , it relates to how men and women truthfully perceive themselves , their talents , and their accomplishments . The major significance of this lies in the fact that success often correlates to confidence just as much as it does to competence .
Not only does a significant gap in confidence exist , but it was found to be more pronounced in developed , prosperous , individualistic nations according to a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2015 .
A confidence gap in a place like Hong Kong is surprising , as the city is
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