Not long ago, I conducted a poll on LinkedIn to find out whether the concept of the confidence gap was widely known. The result? Mostly unknown.
And yet, this phenomenon deeply affects women’s self-confidence.
What is the confidence gap?
The confidence gap refers to the difference in self-confidence between women and men, particularly in the professional world.
Concretely:
- Women tend to doubt their skills more
- They wait until they feel perfectly ready before taking action
- Men, on the other hand, are more likely to take action, even imperfectly
👉 A well-known example:
A man applies for a job with 60% of the required qualifications.
A woman still hesitates… even with 90% of the skills.
Why do women lack self-confidence?
The confidence gap among women is not random. It is deeply rooted in our history.
For centuries, women were deprived of power, knowledge… and therefore of self-confidence.
Let’s explore a few historical facts to better understand this phenomenon.
The witch hunts: fear of women and female knowledge
Between 1450 and 1700, an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 executions took place in Europe. Between 75% and 85% of the victims were women.
Why? Because women’s knowledge was threatening in a society dominated by men and the Church.
Many of the accused women were:
- midwives
- healers
- herbalists
Or simply independent women who dared to speak up.
👉 Being a free woman could be enough to be condemned.
The myth of women’s intellectual inferiority
In 1879, Gustave Le Bon stated:
“The brains of many women are closer in size to those of gorillas than to the more developed male brains.”
At the time, some went even further:
they claimed that women were intellectually inferior… notably because they lost blood every month, which supposedly “reduced blood flow to the brain.”
These theories, now discredited, were nevertheless taken seriously for decades.
These narratives had a lasting impact on how both women and men perceived women’s abilities.
Late access to education
In Belgium, it was only in 1920 that the University of Louvain opened its doors to women, after Brussels, Ghent and Liège had done so in 1880.
And yet, even in the 1960s, one idea persisted:
“A woman who is too educated will never find a husband.”
How can you build self-confidence when learning itself is already considered a problem?
Limited career opportunities for women
Until the 20th century, women were largely confined to three sectors:
- domestic work
- textile work
- primary education
In 1910, more than 70% of working women were employed in these undervalued professions.
It was not a lack of ambition, but a lack of opportunities.
A role confined to the domestic sphere
Until the 1960s, the dominant model was that of the housewife.
Women’s place was then defined in a highly restrictive way:
their role was considered “naturally” to conceive, raise children and take care of the household, in the name of a supposed maternal instinct.
In Belgium:
- In 1947, fewer than 30% of married women had a professional activity
- Until 1958, married women were legally incapacitated and subject to their husband’s authority
- Husbands controlled their income… and could even decide whether they were allowed to work
A matter of survival… turned into a reflex
For centuries, for a woman:
- speaking up = danger
- knowledge = danger
- being visible = danger
So yes, staying quiet, making oneself small, doubting oneself…
was also a survival strategy.
The confidence gap today: a legacy that still remains
The confidence gap among women is the legacy of this history.
It is not a lack of skills.
It is not an individual problem.
👉 It is a social construct.
And yet, even today, women continue to blame themselves for their lack of self-confidence…
What if we changed our perspective?
No, women are not born with less self-confidence. But they do inherit centuries of conditioning.
👉 What we call innate is often… transgenerationally acquired.
If you would like to further explore this History that continues to shape us, I invite you to discover my book Pandora is right.