I get asked aboutimpostor syndromea lotby colleagues, by mentees, by my closest friends.
And I get where theyre coming from.
I know what it feels like to worry that youre not ready or prepared or good enough.
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With all the challenges facing women today, how can we overcome our impostor syndrome?
The answer is simple: We dont.
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Impostor syndrome isnt our problem to solve.
And Im not just talking about the graduates.
It just wasnt adding up.
Back in the 1890s cycling was taking off in Europe and North America, especially for women.
It was called…bicycle face.
The new condition afflicted women who daredgaspgo for a bike ride.
Thats right: Before there was resting bitch face, there was resting bike face.
To be clear, it wasnt just women riding bicycles.
In fact, the majority of those taking up the hobby weremen.But bicycle face was strictly a womens disease.
It wasnt a syndrome; it was a strategy.
In those days the bicycle was a symbol of a budding feminist movement.
Women could go further, faster, without waiting around for agentlemanon horseback to come to their aid.
Suffragists were able to meet up with one another and campaign from town to town.
Women even started to demand different clothing, trading big hoop skirts for breezy bloomers.
To men, bicyclesand the behaviors they enabled in womenwere a threat to the status quo.
So they invented this disease to put women back in their place.
A century later, the idea of bicycle face sounds laughable.
Its easy to see it for what it is: a misogynistic scheme.
But what if impostor syndrome is just a scheme too?
The way our culture talks about impostor syndrome, you could easily mistake it for a medical condition.
Back then, it was termed impostor phenomenon, and it was based on high-achieving women.
It was never intended to be pathologized.
Still, like bicycle face before it, impostor syndrome was a reaction to womens progress.
But this time the backlash was more insidious.
So lets debunk some of them, here and now.
Myth #1: Theres something wrong with us.
This impostor scheme has deluded an entire generation of women into thinking that were somehow deficient.
It means youreriding a bicycle.
But Istillfelt like everyone else was speaking a different languageand thats because they basicallywere.
Most people there had unearned privileges that I didnt.
Big law firms like that were built by, and for, people who dont look like me.
It makes sense to feel like you dont fit in when you literally dont fit in.
In fact, its by design.
Myth #2: Its our job to fix ourselves.
Its not bad advice, per se.
But all thoseshoulds (Get a mentor!
Learn to say no!)
are ultimately just another burden we place on women.
Of course, in reality, the problemand solutionis bigger than any one of us.
Its a lot like the gender pay gap in America, whichhasnt budged in two decades.
To fix that problem, weve been telling women, one by one, Know your worth!
In reality, we should be telling companies: Pay women fairly.
Offer paid leave and childcare, both proven to help kill the pay gap.
Myth #3: Impostor syndrome is inevitable.
We can put impostor schemes to rest.
But we have to go to the source.
She didnt tell women to fix their bicycle face.
She certainly didnt tell women to stop riding.
She challenged the entire premiseand in 1897 dismissed it as not being a medical condition.
Its never really been about whether were qualified enough, or smart enough, or prepared enough.
Instead its about the barriers that are designed to keep us out of those rooms in the first place.
Which means our job isnt to overcome impostor syndrome at all.
Its to focus less on fixing ourselves and more on healing a broken world.
Marginalized people, especially women of color, have been leading that fight against systemic injustice for generations.
Getting there will be the work of a lifetime.
But theres one thing we women can do today and every day of our lives.
Just ride our damn bicycles.
Make our case, lead our movement, pursue whatever it is we want to pursue.
Live as if impostor syndrome were just two made-up words on the page.
Reshma Saujani is the founder of Girls Who Code and the author ofBrave, Not Perfect.
