The Science of Self-Confidence in Women Entrepreneurs

As we celebrate “Women’s History Month” throughout March, let’s take a moment to acknowledge recent history and reckon with how the pandemic has disproportionately affected women. According to a recent survey by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the number of female business owners who ranked their business’s overall health as “somewhat or very good” fell 13 points during the pandemic, from 60% in January to 47% in July 2020. By contrast, the number of male business owners reporting a “good” business health status only fell five points in the same period (67% to 62%). Lack of funding, lack of confidence, and market saturation have presented significant challenges for women in business, all of which are compounded by the current pandemic and economic crisis.  

 Even though many female business owners have had to nimbly pivot to keep their doors open, many others have had to shut down forever.   

 We see the statistics, but unless you’ve been there, you may not realize the narrative behind them: Each small business represents someone’s hopes, efforts, dreams, and years of their life. The loss of a business is much more than just the loss of a source of revenue (as if that weren’t enough): it’s like losing part of yourself. Even if you experienced success and there was nothing you could have done to change the outcome, it feels like unmitigated failure, and it can have a massive impact on how you see yourself – which can, in turn, affect your health and close down avenues of opportunity. 

 Back in November 2012, I was running three small businesses.  An entrepreneur at heart, I was already operating two PR agencies when I decided to take a chance on another company – in a completely different sector – that required a huge financial risk.   

 During one of my many trips to Argentina, I fell in love with Iobella, an innovative fitness and spa concept designed for women, that features workout pods and triple-oxygen spa cabins never seen in the U.S., and decided to bring it to Los Angeles. Iobella was new and revolutionary in the U.S. and I gave everything I had to make this dream come true.  I was a full-time working mom with two small children but nothing got in the way of my new dream.  I opened Iobella in Santa Monica and my new business enterprise became a reality.  

 Shortly after the opening, I was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer.  My priorities shifted instantly.  I experienced a renewed focus on my health and wellness – which was a positive outcome in my recovery but also brought an unexpected mental challenge that was completely new to me: lack of self-confidence and a sense of failure.   

As my finances crumbled, my dream evaporated, and with it my confidence and resilience.  After my successful cancer treatments, I decided that I didn’t want to own anything any longer, and that I would be better off not creating new ventures, so I closed Iobella and sold one of my PR agencies a few years after.  

A powerful article in The Atlantic titled “The Confidence Gap” by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman posits that women are less self-assured than men and that confidence matters as much as competence in achieving success. The authors discuss the intriguing possibility that brain structure could figure into variations between the way men and women respond to challenging and threatening circumstances. Women tend to form strong emotional memories of negative events.  This clearly happened to me. I couldn’t see myself owning companies any longer, and the story I told myself was that I had failed and that I wasn’t good enough to be a business owner. 

While I didn’t (and don’t) regret my decision, it still took me several years to get my confidence back.  What I did not realize then was that the risk-taking, failure, and perseverance that I experienced as a business owner are all essential to confidence building.  My story, familiar to many entrepreneurial women during this pandemic, requires a deep analysis into what we can do to ensure that we redefine the meaning of failure and use these experiences as learning opportunities that strengthen our character without losing our confidence.   

 What we, as women, need to do is to keep taking well-calculated chances and remind ourselves that it is only after taking the risk that we acquire the confidence. And to fill that gap between the risk and the payoff, we need faith that we have what it takes to succeed. A critical part in our self-confidence journey is also doing the necessary work to help eliminate the mental blockages and barriers that prevent us from creating new opportunities.   

And, on a broader scale, we need to actively pursue policy that supports women and recognizes the value that female entrepreneurs create. This includes advocating for an enhanced Family Leave Act and providing more grants for women-owned businesses. In general, we need to help create an economic and social climate that empowers women to take those life-changing chances on their own success.