A report by NIH researchers was published today discussing the results of their survey of more than 1,300 postdocs working at the NIH (43 percent of them were women). The researchers were trying to figure out why so many women leave academic science during their postdoc years.

The two major reasons that emerged were: (1) women bear a disproportionate share of the family responsibilities (and place family life higher on their priority list) and they see life as a successful PI conflicting with a decent family/personal life, especially if you’re the primary caregiver; and (2) lack of self-confidence.

Reason 1 is well known and discussed and is the driver behind initiatives that some universities have undertaken such as subsidized child care. It’s relatively easy for universities to address reason 1 with programs….not sure how effective these programs are, but at least universities have identified things they can do about this.

But reason #2 is far more difficult to talk about and deal with and hence, I don’t get the impression that as much has been done to address reason #2. My big question: why do women lack self-confidence? I still remember a question asked by a female MIT grad student at a forum I attended about women-in-science in the spring: why is it that women tend to suffer from the ‘imposter syndrome’ and men don’t? (Imposter syndrome: a feeling that I don’t belong at this university or in this lab. I’m not good enough and soon someone will discover that and kick me out.) There was no good answer given at the forum.

Here’s what the report said about the issue of self-confidence.

Despite a similar self-assessment of professional skills across the two genders, more than 59% of men, but only 40% of women, were confident that they would obtain a PI position. This tendency of women to express lower confidence in their skills was illustrated further by their lower expectations of obtaining tenure. Assuming they were granted a PI position, 55% of men, but only 43% of women, were highly confident that they would achieve tenure, and this gender-based difference increased if only fellows from the USA were considered. Whether this lower confidence originates from foreseen future challenges that affect women more than men—such as childbearing, child care and/or a less favourable professional environment—or whether they indicate that women underestimate their professional ability, is an important question that requires further study.

Indeed. Where does this lack of self-confidence come from?