Millennial Women Don't Lack Confidence -- They're Just (Justifiably) Cynical

Confidence trumps competence and a lack of the former is a major contributing factor to unequal career outcomes between women and men, journalists Claire Shipman and Katty Kay argue in their new book, The Confidence Code: The Science And Art Of Self-Assurance – What Women Should Know. Their work is the subject of a current feature over at The Atlantic and while the piece offers a compelling perspective on why self-belief trumps pure talent in terms of career success, there’s one little fly in the polemical ointment when it comes to gender and self-belief.

Young women don’t lack for personal confidence or ambition. College-age women are now every bit as narcissistic as their male peers. When it comes to careers, there is a gender ambition gap – more Millennial women (66%) than men (59%) say that having a high-paying, prestigious career is important to them. Young women have no doubt they can balance work and home life. In fact, they actually eschew the need for mentorship and evince a desire to blaze their own trails vs. following in the footsteps of high-achieving female leaders in their own workplaces.

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