The Confidence Gap: How confident are you?

In a feature published last month by The Atlantic, Womenomics authors Katty Kay and Claire Shipman tackle the notion of a ‘Confidence Gap’ between men and women. Studies show that women are less assured than men, and that success depends as much on confidence as on competence.

Here are a couple of points that really hit home for me:

-In studies, men overestimate their abilities and performance, and women underestimate both. Their performances do not differ in quality.

-Women applied for a promotion only when they met 100 percent of the qualifications. Men applied when they met 50 percent.

-The natural result of low confidence is inaction. When women hesitate because we aren’t sure, we hold ourselves back.

-The advice implicit in such findings is hardly unfamiliar: to become more confident, women need to stop thinking so much and just act.

How confident are you? Take the confidence quiz and report back to us in the comments below. Were you surprised by the results?