Understanding the Imposter Phenomenon through a Gender Equality Lens: A Systematic Literature Review on Women Employees in the Workplace

This review contributes to the literature by considering the phenomenon of dishonesty within the structural dimension of gender inequality and highlighting its impact in the context of women. İmposter phenomenon (or impostor syndrome) was first introduced in 1978 to describe the internalized belief that one is less competent than others perceive. Individuals experiencing this phenomenon tend to attribute their achievements to external factors such as luck rather than their own abilities, which leads to a persistent sense of inadequacy and distorted self-perception (Rampersad et al., 2025). The literature generally indicates that women experience impostor feelings more frequently than men. Focusing on working life, this study approaches the issue within the framework of gender equality. Data were obtained from the Web of Science and Scopus databases using the keywords “imposter phenomenon,” “impostor,” “impostor phenomenon,” “imposter,” “imposter syndrome,” and “impostor syndrome.” Inclusion criteria were: document type research article; Sustainable Development Goal—SDG 05 (Gender Equality); index SSCI, ESCI, SCI-Expanded; language English; and open access type (Gold, Green, Hybrid, etc.). Exclusion criteria were: studies involving only student samples, review papers, studies not addressing working life, non-English publications, and non-open-access articles. Based on these criteria, a total of 28 articles were included in the systematic review. The PRISMA protocol was followed, and JBI and Newcastle–Ottawa scales were used for risk assessment. The study aims to reveal the current state of the literature on the impostor phenomenon, to identify examined variables, sectors, methods, countries, and gender-based differences, and to determine research gaps. Finally, the study provides recommendations for future research addressing the impostor phenomenon in the context of gender equality.