Week 1: Annie Deng, Section 1

Annie Deng
Section A01
Week 1

As I read Fight the Tower, it shocked me how Valverde experienced several micro-aggressions during her tenure battle despite the fact that she had already accomplished so much in the academe. All of the indirect forms of hostility in her work environment pushed her to develop the imposter syndrome. She started believing that she was not academically competent enough and that she did not deserve her place in the high institution. This reminded me of how women and men attribute their failures and successes in a different way. Women are more likely to attribute their failures to internal factors, while men tend to attribute their failures externally. However, when you reverse the situation, women attribute their successes externally and men attribute their successes internally. For example, if a boy got a good grade on a test, he would think, "Wow! I'm so smart." If a girl received a good grade on a test, she would think, "I'm not that smart. I just studied really hard to earn my grades." Valverde explained how she "felt she did not belong here, did not earn her place here" (Valverde, 2013, pg. 377). That sentence resonated with me because it related to me too much. I had a difficult time acknowledging my own self worth and abilities because society taught me that women were always somewhat inferior to men. I was never confident in myself and I always doubted my abilities. I only believed my accomplishments were due to the fact I had to work harder to achieve them. For instance, I thought I was simply "lucky" to be accepted into UC Davis rather than thinking I am an intelligent Chinese girl who deserves to attend a top university. Socially constructed ideas about women can certainly do a lot of harm. Discrimination and micro-aggressions against marginalized groups such as women of color have enforced them to accept the idea that they are not good enough, which prohibits them from reaching their highest potential.

Question: How can we overcome the imposter syndrome and understand that our accomplishments are what we truly worked hard for?

References
1. Valverde, K. (2013). Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia. Seattle Journal for Social Justice, 12(2).
2. [TED]. (2010, Dec 21). Why we have too few women leaders | Sheryl Sandberg. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18uDutylDa4.