The dangers of the new ‘confidence culture’ directed at women

WITH Valentine’s Day last month, advice about confidence proliferated. British Vogue enjoined women to boost their sexual confidence with slogans like “feel good in your body” and “say goodbye to negative talk”.

Meanwhile, Selfridges promised shoppers a sex and relationship “MOT” in which “confidence coaching” for women comes as part of the package.

But (like dogs and Christmas) confidence is not just for Valentine’s Day. It is now a 24/7 obligation for women.

Inequality in the workplace? Women need to lean in and become more confident. Eating disorders and poor body image? Programmes promoting girls’ confidence and body positivity are the solution. Parenting problems? Let’s help make mums feel more confident so they can raise confident kids.

Post-pandemic relationship sours? Well, confidence is, after all, “the new sexy”.

Even the British Army now targets potential female recruits with the promise that joining the military will give young women confidence that “lasts a lifetime”.

The need for self-confidence has become so much a part of our common sense that it is presented as beyond debate. Cast as a feminist intervention and aimed at the obvious good of empowering women, who could possibly be against it?

But, as we argue in our new book, the problem with these imperatives, programmes and interventions – what we call “confidence culture” – is that they encourage us to undertake extensive work on the self and direct us away from calling out structural inequalities that are the real source of the problems women face.

Self-confidence is presented as the solution to a