Government Training Exposes Confidence Tax on Female Leaders

A government-funded business training programme has enrolled 10,000 small business leaders since 2021, with women making up 39 per cent of participants. That figure might sound modest until you consider that women lead just 15 per cent of UK SMEs. The gap between those two numbers tells you everything you need to know about who feels they need formal credentials to be taken seriously.

The Help to Grow: Management Course, which covers 90 per cent of costs through government funding, has become an unlikely window into the structural disadvantages that female entrepreneurs still navigate. Five women who've completed the 12-week programme offered leadership advice ahead of International Women's Day, and their testimonials—whilst clearly part of the programme's promotional materials—reveal patterns that extend far beyond marketing copy.

Three of the five emphasised finding mentors, building peer networks, and combating isolation. None of their male counterparts likely frame professional development in quite the same terms. When male founders network, it's called business. When women do it, it's positioned as emotional scaffolding against imposter syndrome.

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The confidence tax on female leadership

Louise Morgan, who runs B2B communications agency TMPR, described imposter syndrome as a "deep-rooted feeling" that her company's growth came from luck rather than design. Her solution? Conversations with competitors who turned into collaborators, proving she wasn't alone in doubting her own competence.

That women at the helm of successful businesses still question whether they've earned their position isn't a personal failing.

Figures from a 2022 British Business Bank report found that female-led businesses received just 2 per cent of UK venture capital funding, and even bootstrapped female founders report facing higher scrutiny from clients and suppliers on basic commercial decisions. The confidence gap isn't about psychology—it's about operating in an environment that constantly signals you're an exception.

Rebecca Smith, creative director at Pruden & Smith, credited her mentor with giving her clarity on "how everything needed to move forward." She claims the business is "growing faster than ever," though without baseline figures that statement offers little beyond sentiment. What's more telling is that she needed external validation to enact changes she presumably already understood her business required.

Why boundaries become a gendered issue

Lucy Collins, who directs Web Usability, warned against what she called "carrying everyone else's emotional load"—a pressure she noted feels particularly acute for women balancing leadership with caring responsibilities. Her advice? "You don't need to be liked by everyone to earn respect."

That this needs stating at all is instructive. Male executives rarely receive guidance on separating approval from authority because the default assumption is that their authority exists independently of likability. Collins also suggested that women "bring deep empathy to leadership," a claim that risks reinforcing the very stereotypes that pigeonhole female leaders into nurturing roles rather than strategic ones.

Anjali Ramachandran, director at Storythings and founder of women-in-tech network Ada's List, pushed beyond the mentor framing entirely. Her focus: creating advocates who recommend you "when you're not in the room." That's a more hardheaded take on professional development, one that acknowledges how opportunities actually circulate in business—through informal channels where women remain chronically underrepresented.

What the participation gap actually measures

The Help to Grow programme's 39 per cent female participation rate is more than double women's representation among SME leaders. Two explanations present themselves. Either the programme has succeeded in targeted outreach to underrepresented founders, or female business leaders feel they need formal training to legitimise their position in ways their male counterparts don't.

Claire Pattison, who directs the programme at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, recommended "talking to people very different from you" to expand strategic thinking. Fair advice, but it sidesteps the question of why women are seeking that perspective through a government-funded course rather than through the organic professional networks that men access more readily.

The programme launched in 2021 as a productivity initiative, delivered through more than 60 business schools across the UK. Whether it's delivering measurable productivity gains beyond testimonials remains an open question—one that the promotional framing of these interviews doesn't address.

Female founders who've come through Help to Grow are articulating strategies for succeeding despite structural disadvantages, not because those disadvantages have been resolved.

The fact that they're doing so through a government-backed programme suggests policy recognition of the problem. Whether formal training can substitute for the informal power networks that male entrepreneurs inherit by default is another matter entirely. The ongoing challenges female business owners face in being taken seriously reflect systemic issues that extend beyond individual skill development.

As venture capital funding and SME leadership figures continue to skew heavily male, courses like this may provide tactical skills but can't manufacture the systemic credibility that women still have to earn twice over. The tension between being liked versus being respected as a woman leader remains a persistent barrier that no amount of formal training can fully resolve.

More articles by David Adams