Word Weavers: Pauline Rose Clance

Pauline Rose Clance (1938 - present) is a psychologist most famous for co-authoring the research paper that first coined the term “imposter phenomenon.” Commonly known as “imposter syndrome” today, the phenomenon Pauline discovered has helped countless women better identify and navigate their feelings of inadequacy in academic and professional settings. 

For Further Reading: 

• Meet the psychologist who first identified imposter syndrome
• The History of Imposter Syndrome | Psychology Today
• Why Everyone Feels Like They’re Faking It | The New Yorker
• Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome

This month, we’re talking about Word Weavers — people who coined terms, popularized words, and even created entirely new languages. These activists, writers, artists, and scholars used language to shape ideas and give voice to experiences that once had no name. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this
is Womanica. This month, we're talking about word weavers, people
who coined terms, popularized words, and even created entirely new languages.
These activists, writers, artists, and scholars used language to shape
ideas and give voice to experiences that once had no name.

(00:25):
Celebrated writer Maya Angelou once said, I have written eleven books,
but each time I think, uh, oh, they're going to
find out now. She was describing a feeling a lot
of successful people experience. Accomplishments, awards, and promotions never seemed
to quiet the inner voice telling them you aren't really talented.
You're just fooling everyone into believing you are Today's Womaniquin

(00:48):
was no stranger to that feeling. In fact, she used
her personal experiences as the foundation for her research into
a psychological phenomenon that became widely known as imposter syndrome.
Let's talk about Pauline Rose Clance. Pulleine was born in

(01:12):
nineteen thirty eight in the Appalachian region of Baptist Valley
in Virginia. Pauline came from a working class background. Her
father was a sawmill operator. She was the youngest and
smallest of six children. She earned the nickname Tiny for
her small stature. She was also an excellent student, not

(01:33):
that she saw it that way. She later recalled agonizing
over her performance after every test, swearing to her mother,
I think I failed it. When she inevitably aced the exam,
her family and friends would say, forget it, don't pull
that woe as me crap again. Eventually, people stopped taking
Pauline's panic over potential failure seriously, especially since the failure

(01:54):
never seemed to materialize. That academic success followed her into adolescence.
After graduating high school, she went on to study psychology
at Lynchburg College in Virginia and became the first member
of her family to earn a college degree. Next, she
earned a master's and then a doctorate in psychology at
the University of Kentucky. But Pauline's feelings of inadequacy persisted.

(02:20):
As an assistant professor and counselor at Operland College in Ohio,
she began to notice that a lot of other women
in academia felt the same way. Student after student would
come to Pauline's office lamenting their intellectual limitations despite impressive
sat scores and grades. One young woman confessed, I feel
like an impostor here among all these bright students. Pauline

(02:43):
was struck by how those words echoed her experiences and
decided to learn more. Pauline collaborated with her colleague Suzanne Imes,
to conduct research into why so many bright young women
felt like they didn't earn their place in higher education.
The duo spent the next five years into viewing more
than one hundred and fifty high achieving women working in
a variety of professions including social work, nursing, and law.

(03:07):
They presented their findings in the nineteen seventy eight study
titled the Impostor Phenomenon in High Achieving Women, Dynamics and
Therapeutic Intervention. Pauline and Suzanne explained that quote despite outstanding
academic and professional accomplishments, women who experience the impostor phenomenon
persist in believing that they are really not bright and

(03:28):
have fooled anyone who thinks otherwise. They found that many
women find themselves in a cycle of paralyzing fear of failure,
frenzied hard work, and minimal gratification after experiencing success. Pauline
and Suzanne also identified two main family patterns that produced
impostor phenomenon in the women they interviewed. In the first scenario,

(03:49):
a woman might have a sibling deemed the smart one
by her parents, and consequently struggled to accept validation of
their own intelligence and talents. In the second scenario, a
woman might be told she is naturally gifted by her
parents and then struggled to meet the high expectations placed
on her. Someone in the second category might conceal her
study habits from her parents, convinced that truly intelligent people

(04:10):
don't need to study to ace exams. The paper initially
kept getting rejected, but it quickly gained underground popularity. Pauline
found herself fielding so many requests for copies of the
study that the person working the copy machine in her
department eventually asked, what are you doing with all of these?
Over time, the study gained traction, and in nineteen eighty five,

(04:32):
Pauline published her book The impost Phenomenon. She also developed
an official scale to help other psychology researchers identify and
define impost phenomenon in their own studies. Since then, Pauline
and Suzanne's initial concept of impost phenomenon has mutated, especially
since it gained a foothold across social media platforms. Today,

(04:53):
it's usually referred to as imposter syndrome, even though it
doesn't actually meet the criteria for a syndrome. Pauline doesn't
love of this twist on their original concept, and has
since explained she and Suzanne meant to normalize impost phenomenon
as an experience, not to pathologize it. But it seems
that the term impost syndrome isn't going anywhere. Since its publication,

(05:15):
Pauline and Suzanne's study has also faced plenty of criticism,
especially from women of color who noticed that most of
the women originally interviewed for the paper were white. In
twenty twenty one, Ruchika Tulcian and Jody Anne Burry published
a now famous rebuttal and Harvard Business Review. They argued
that labelling women with impost syndrome can obscure the systemic
obstacles standing in the way of their success, like racism, classism,

(05:38):
and xenophobia. Pauline and Suzanne had generally been opened to
these types of critiques in the decades after her research
first gained popularity. Pauline operated a private psychology practice based
in Atlanta, Georgia. She of course, specialized in helping clients
identify and work through their experiences with impost phenomenon. Today,

(05:58):
she's in her mid eighties and is retired. In a
twenty twenty four interview, she gave this advice to those
struggling with imposter phenomenon. Remember a success you've had. Then
invite your boss in the room. What would they say?
Then let someone else in, maybe your professor, then the
head of the project, then your father, your sister. What
would they say? Observe their conversation Once the room is full,

(06:22):
I ask you, don't you think it's interesting that you
can fool so many bright people? All month, we're talking
about word beavers. For more information, find us on Facebook
and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast special thanks to Liz Kaplan,
my favorite sister and co creator. Talk to you tomorrow.