When psychologists first began to study the impostor phenomenon, they suspected it was something experienced primarily by women. That has proven not to be the case. In fact, it is one of the few psychological issues initially thought to affect primarily women that later was determined to relate to both genders.
Men are attending my seminars in increasing numbers, and among graduate students the male- female ratio is roughly fifty- fifty I’ve heard from or worked with countless men who suffer terribly from their fraud fears, including a member of the Canadian mounted police, an attorney who’d argued before the Supreme Court, a corporate CEO, and an entire team of aerospace engineers, one of whom spoke of the “sheer terror” he feels when handed a major assignment.
This of course begs the question, if men identify with the impostor syndrome too, why is this book aimed primarily at women? It’s a legitimate question and frankly one I struggled with. Despite the title you will find male voices reflected in the book. Once you read the book it will be clear why, in the end, there were more reasons than not to focus more so on women.
The next obvious question is: Can men who experience the impostor syndrome benefit from this book? In a word absolutely! And all the more so if you are a man of color, have working-class roots, or identify with any of the other “at-risk” groups I talk about in this book. Similarly, if you know, teach, manage, mentor, parent, or coach a male or groups of males who are susceptible to the impostor syndrome, you will gain greatly from this book as well.
