Are Women afraid about their qualifications before applying for a Job?

The concept of fear is the abstract derivation of Insecurity. In most cases, it applies to womankind where they assume themselves to be very weak and incompetent. Probably you would have been aware of the recent statistics on Job application that says, women would apply for a job only if they realize that they are 100% qualified where as men would just give a go if they feel that they are 60% qualified for a job.

Based on an internal report submitted by Hewlett Packard, women require more confidence to understand that they are really capable. A recent article on Forbes quoted that ‘Though men have 60% ability, they are confident about it. But until women checked off each item on the list, they won’t feel confident’.

Voice of Women

'Though I felt that I was not alone, I was doubtful and thought that my qualifications doesn’t meet the criteria'

'I was nervous as something crept within me, I think that was fear. Finally I figured out that I could not do the job well. Therefore I retrained from applying one'

These are the different iterations that were spoken by various women when asked why they didn’t apply for any job.

Statistics

Just take a look at the following percentage of statistics on Men and Women,

‘I didn’t think they would hire me since I didn’t meet the qualifications, and I didn’t want to waste my time and energy’ is the most popular answer by 41% and 46% of Women and Men respectively.

The generic assumption is that they believe that they need qualifications for cracking the hiring process. This totally keeps them out of the original fact that qualifications are not for cracking the hiring rounds but to do the job once they get recruited.

Misconception and True Myth

Due to the accustomed patterns of various job interviews, there is a misconception among potential women about hiring process. They underestimate that they are not capable of going through the hiring process which is pretty simple to their standards and not a complex process. 

Final and most important cause is the prevailing scenario which suggests women failures would be remembered for so long. I'm totally affirmative that, it is certainly not an organic fact but a Myth which is believed to be true.

Psychology says that women have great potential in handling difficult emotional deals than men. At least that is what needed to serve for an organization. If you are one such woman who fall into such category, just push yourself out of comfort zone and start moving.