High-achieving women more likely to feel like impostors.

Underneath that sterling transcript or CV, have you ever felt deep at heart that really, you're a fraud? Perhaps it's been at a job interview or evaluation, a new job or your first campus-wide committee. When everyone says you're doing great, do you fear they'll suddenly catch on that you're faking it?

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That's the impostor syndrome: strong secret feelings of inadequacy and fraudulence. It's most common among students, who face constant evaluation. Women experience it more than men, and it occurs only in high achievers. That puts women doctoral students at triple risk.

Dr. Scarlette Spears Studdard interviewed 11 such women for her 2002 doctoral dissertation at the University of Georgia, "Behind the Mask of Success and Excellence: Impostorism and Women Doctoral Students." This article is based on her dissertation and an article she wrote on it.

Presenting her results at the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) meeting in St. Louis in March 2003, she said she wrote the disertation in four months while tending her one-year-old child. "It could be better but hey, it's done!" she said.

"Impostors" couldn't say that with a smile, because they equate their own imperfection with failure. They blame themselves when things go wrong but attribute their successes to chance or being in the right place at the right time. Underrating their own abilities, they struggle to excel but hesitate to compete for higher-level positions or awards. Because they believe they didn't merit their achievements, they live in dread of being "found out."

Women as impostors