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Insights – Learning from Failure, Innovation and Workplace Culture
m Superwoman: Perfectionism and My Fear of Failure
With International Women's Day coming up, we decided to explore how perfectionism and the fear of failure impacts women and what we can do about it
By:
Lindsay Walsh
As a professional woman, I feel enormous pressure to be perfect. I am brutally self-critical and constantly struggle with imposter syndrome, convinced that any mistake, no matter how minor, will cause all my clients to rush off to work with someone else.
The pressure is so intense that I sometimes find myself sabotaging my own efforts, so afraid of failing that I don’t even try. Andm damn surem the only woman who feels this way. This pressure to be perfect only intensifies for women in leadership positions. When you’re the only woman in the room and your actions are essentially seen as representative of your entire gender, it’s hard to feel like there’s any room for error.
Women are expected to do it all and have it all, and any failure to do so is seen as a sign that perhaps they didn’t belong there in the first place.
Not only does society judge women more harshly for our failures than it does men, but it also refuses to fucking pay us! Women around the world are paid just 63% of what men earn for doing the exact same work. There is no country (not a single one) where men spend the same amount of time on unpaid work as women.
It’s 2020, and we’re still stuck with the same unreasonable expectation that female leaders should be “superwomen” who do everything flawlessly while being paid less than their male colleagues. This, my friends, is messed up.
It is absolutely crucial to challenge this expectation. We need to share our successes and support one another, yes, but even more importantly, we need to step up and share our failures. We aren’t perfect. We make mistakes sometimes. But being vulnerable and open about these screw-ups makes us stronger, not weaker.
It is time to create new models of “success” that prioritize vulnerability, authenticity, and community over perfection, false narratives, and individualism—models in which women can bring their whole selves to the table.
And nowm reallym finish this blog post because I can’t seem to find just the right closing sentence. But for once,m okay with the fact that it’s not perfect.
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