Sports, also known as the “birthplace of confidence” is where even the most reserved kids can gain confidence by growing in their ability along with others to support them along the way. Part of this confidence in boys may be attributed to increased male participation in activities such as sports. However, failures do not linger with boys, unlike girls, who take failure in a much more intense way at the other end of the spectrum. They tend to overestimate their abilities on exams and score worse than they expected to.

Time and again, boys show that confidence is even more important than competence or actual skill. On the other hand, girls are much more reserved, barely ever raising their hands and feeling pressured to do better than the boys. In the classroom, boys will immediately raise their hand, even if they are unsure whether their response makes sense in the current situation. Starting from a young age, men are much more confident than women. Why are men are more confident than women, what the “confidence code” really is, and if people are just born with confidence? Interviews and talks with different people all the way from WNBA players to primate specialists, different insights are gathered about why women are less confident and how they can improve it by implementing a growth mindset into their everyday lives.Īfter reading the book, I thought of 3 questions answered by the book, backed up by strong evidence curated by experts in the field. There are many different factors that cause this such as the way women take failure as opposed to men, the pressure that women feel working alongside men, as well as the idea that some people are born with more confidence than others.

The book explores the idea of why women doubt themselves and lack faith in their abilities, leading to a reduction in their confidence.

The Confidence Code by Katty Kay