Women · Giftedness · Self-understanding
8 pointers to understand experiences that can remain hidden for years
Bright, passionate, sensitive or deeply committed, some gifted women learn early to hide what sets them apart. They may then experience their difference both as a strength and as something they should make less visible.
Video in French. The article below is available in English.
These eight pointers describe possible experiences, rather than a fixed portrait. They can help you recognise patterns of masking, doubt, intensity or high expectations that may have been taken for granted for years.
Women who are gifted experience more distress than gifted men. Of course, this does not apply to every woman: some gifted women do not suffer, particularly when their difference has been recognised and valued since childhood.
Gifted women experience their difference more intensely than men. They therefore tend to make greater efforts than gifted men to adapt to others and become chameleons.
Gifted women are highly perfectionistic. Even those with extensive qualifications doubt themselves, lack confidence and feel they lack the necessary skills.
Gifted women are perceived very differently, often through sexist assumptions.
For a fulfilling intimate relationship, they especially need this connection through language.
Gifted women have high expectations of their relationships, particularly romantic ones. However, their emotional intelligence helps them explain to their partner what a gifted woman needs.
Misunderstood, they are seen by others as too sensitive, too involved, too demanding, and so on.
They may experience immense intensity when doing something they are passionate about, to the point of losing the desire to eat or drink for days!
When a woman has spent years downplaying her intensity, abilities or sense of difference, identifying how she functions can help her see her history differently: less as a succession of excesses or shortcomings, and more as a profile she can understand and embrace.
No. These are possible experiences whose intensity varies considerably with personal history, environment and type of giftedness.
The false self, adaptation and the tendency to hide or downplay what sets them apart can contribute to later identification.
That depends on your main question. HIP primarily concerns cognitive functioning, whereas HEP focuses more on emotional abilities and functioning.
Screening can help you move from a vague impression to an initial, structured understanding of how you function.
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