Women over 60 who say they've never been more confident didn't suddenly find self-esteem-they all stopped performing these 7 things that most women are taught to maintain from adolescence onward - Silicon Canals

"I spent forty years trying to shrink myself. Now I take up all the space I want. Remember when we used to apologize for having opinions? These women weren't talking about suddenly discovering confidence. They were talking about unlearning decades of behaviors that had been holding them back. The kind of behaviors that so many of us are taught from the moment we hit adolescence-behaviors designed to make us smaller, quieter, more acceptable."

"Women who've found their confidence later in life have universally ditched this habit. They've stopped apologizing for taking up space, having needs, or expressing opinions. One woman told me she keeps a tally of unnecessary apologies, treating each one like a swear jar. You'd be amazed how often we apologize for things that don't require apology. The research backs this up. Studies show that women apologize significantly more than men, not because we do more wrong, but because of socialization."

Women often internalize behaviors during adolescence designed to make them smaller, quieter, and more acceptable to society. These automatic performances include excessive apologizing for existing, seeking permission before speaking, and minimizing their presence. Research demonstrates women apologize significantly more than men, not due to greater wrongdoing but because of socialization. Women who achieve confidence later in life consciously unlearn these patterns by stopping unnecessary apologies, taking up space without guilt, and expressing opinions without qualification. This transformation represents not sudden confidence discovery but deliberate rejection of decades-long conditioning that taught self-diminishment as a survival strategy.

Read at Silicon Canals