Source: The Conversation – France in French (3) – By Zuzanna Staniszewska, Assistant Professor in the Management Department at Kozminski University; Research Associate, ESCP Business School
Nowadays, media often celebrate the “girlboss” – the entrepreneur who works 80-hour weeks to build her brand and success – while corporate campaigns show women who “lean in” in the boardroom and maintain flawless family lives. These cultural ideals create the illusion that women in leadership are more empowered than ever. However, our research shows that some of them feel exhausted, constrained by expectations, and pressured to embody an ideal that leaves little space for vulnerability. This tension is linked to a relatively new form of feminism that may not be as empowering as it purports to be.
Neoliberal feminism
The term neoliberal feminism was first introduced by media and cultural studies scholar Catherine Rottenberg in 2013. Rottenberg used it to describe the growing fusion between a form of feminism focused on individual empowerment and the logic of neoliberal rationality, which holds, according to political theorist Wendy Brown, that “all aspects of life should be understood in economic terms”.
This strand of feminism acknowledges the persistence of gender inequalities, particularly in the masculine-dominated world of leadership, but places the responsibility for overcoming them on individual women, urging them to self-optimize and constantly assert their value. But beneath this responsibility lies a new kind of pressure – to not only assert their value to men, but to other women. This pressure doesn’t come from traditional patriarchy, but from internalized bias among women. It fuels what we, combining terms from popular and academic literature, call “superwoman impostor phenomenon” – a sense of not being enough that is caused by conflicting and unrealistic expectations.
To explore this phenomenon, we conducted 20 in-depth interviews between 2022 and 2023 with women in executive roles in France’s luxury sector, a setting that embodies the core expectations of neoliberal femininity: that women should lead, inspire, and look perfect – all within a male-dominated leadership context. We asked our subjects about how they build their personal brands, their daily leadership routines, the kinds of pressures they face, and how they balance professional and personal expectations.
To analyse subjects’ responses, we took a qualitative approach that combined thematic and discourse analysis, using an abductive logic that moved back and forth between data and theory. Thematic analysis helped us identify recurring patterns in participants’ accounts. Discourse analysis placed these narratives in a broader social context. It showed how cultural ideals of femininity and leadership shape the ways women talk about their experiences.
In the preliminary findings of our study, which is currently under peer review, some respondents describe feelings of pride and achievement. Others point instead to fatigue, a sense of isolation, and the pressure to live up to an impossible ideal.
A new version of impostor phenomenon
Impostor phenomenon refers to a persistent feeling of self-doubt: the belief that you don’t really deserve your success. You might attribute your achievements to luck, good timing or the help of others, rather than your own competence.
The term was coined in the late 1970s by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, based on their work with high-achieving women. Many of the women Clance and Imes interviewed had earned PhDs and held high positions, yet still felt like frauds. They feared they’d been admitted into graduate programmes by mistake, or that their colleagues had somehow overestimated them.
Since then, impostor phenomenon has been widely recognized (and often called “impostor syndrome”). Especially common among women, it typically comes with three parts: feeling like a fraud, fearing discovery, and struggling to believe in personal success, even while working hard to maintain it.
But something has changed. Today, the struggles and fears of women in leadership roles are no longer just about deserving their place, but about being everything at once: a visionary leader, a perfect mother, a supportive partner, an inspiring mentor, a health-conscious marathon runner, a team player who still stands out. What’s striking is that the pressure doesn’t always come from men. More often, women told us, they feared judgement from other women.
Behind what we see as a new version of impostor phenomenon is a growing body of research showing that women’s self-doubt is shaped by intra-gender competition. For instance, academic studies on the idea of the “queen bee phenomenon”, female misogyny, and micro-violence among elite women reveal how women in leadership roles may distance themselves from other women or enforce masculine norms. This is particularly relevant when considering how the internalization of neoliberal femininity transforms impostor phenomenon into something more complex. Promoted in works such as “Lean In. Women, Work, and the Will to Lead”, the 2013 book by former Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, neoliberal feminism frames inequality as a problem to be solved through individual empowerment, confidence and self-discipline. As a result, women fear not just being incompetent, but failing to embody the superwoman – ever-competent, ever-ambitious, and ever-in-control – and feel pressure from other women who are also performing and policing the same ideals.
Manifestations of superwoman impostor phenomenon
What makes neoliberal feminism, along with superwoman impostor phenomenon, particularly insidious is that it disguises itself as empowerment. On the surface, “having it all” appears aspirational. But underneath lies chronic exhaustion. Several women we spoke with told us they work late into the night not because it’s expected, but because they feel they have to just to prove themselves. One executive described her early leadership experience in this way: “I didn’t ask for resources, because I wanted to prove I can do it by myself… which was a huge mistake.” This is how the superwoman ideal operates: as a self-imposed manager residing in the mind. One that tells you not only to succeed, but to do so effortlessly, without complaining, asking for help or showing vulnerability.
With regard to internalized intra-gender policing, a key tension we observed concerned motherhood: women returning from maternal leave were judged not by men, but by female managers who questioned their ambition and commitment. One woman said: “I suffered from a kind of discrimination after coming back from maternity leave, but it was with a woman, it was my female manager who said, ‘I came back in three months. If you’re serious, you’ll catch up.’ I felt judged for not bouncing back fast enough.”
The women we spoke with described feeling unsupported by female colleagues, witnessing competition instead of solidarity, and struggling with the weight of doing it all without ever showing vulnerability. As one woman put it: “Women don’t support other women because they are scared… they might lose their position to someone younger or smarter.” Borrowing a term from popular discourse, this is what we are calling the sisterhood dilemma: the internal conflict between wanting to see more women rise to leadership and feeling threatened when they do. It’s not just a failure of solidarity. It’s the byproduct of a scarcity of seats at the top, perfectionism, and the pressure to perform.
A call for new narratives
We can’t fix superwoman impostor phenomenon by teaching women to be more confident, because the issue isn’t a lack of confidence – it’s the impossible standard of always being competent and continually proving one’s value. What needs rethinking is the culture that makes women feel like impostors in the first place. That means recognising we don’t need perfect role models. We need authentic ones.
The conversation needs to shift from “how can women be more confident?” to “why is confidence required in the first place – and who gets to decide what it looks like?” We need workplaces where women can be vulnerable, authentic and visible all at once. As one executive told us, “there is a need for some kind of mask. But what if I want to take it off?”
It’s time we let her.
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Zuzanna Staniszewska is affiliated with Kozminski University and ESCP Business School.
Géraldine Galindo ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.
– ref. Impostor syndrome: the cost of being ‘superwoman’ at work and beyond – https://theconversation.com/impostor-syndrome-the-cost-of-being-superwoman-at-work-and-beyond-265218
