This seems to be very much a factor in the gender gaps that exist today. This gap manifests itself in women applying for less-senior positions than men (on ave

This seems to be very much a factor in the gender gaps that exist today. This gap manifests itself in women applying for less-senior positions than men (on average), and more specific applications being biased in favor of men. It also manifests in promotion cases at big companies: men are more likely to ask, but women are a lot more likely to succeed. Women who would be qualified are less likely to try if they think they might fail. At a previous place where I worked, we had many initiatives to help women on these factors: using broad job applications for specific positions and encouraging attempts at promotions, for example. These initiatives actually worked. My wife and I experience this in terms of writing. She has an MFA and is an incredible writer, but she rarely submits or publishes her work because she is afraid that people will reject it. I am an average writer (maybe above average, but not near her skill level), and I try to blog approximately monthly and regularly post my work in various online forums. She once tried to console me when one of my blog posts got a few hundred readers, and I didn't realize what she was doing. I was happy to have a few hundred, but she told me that if it were her, she would have been very upset at the reception.