It's already 2014, but there's still a huge difference in the number of women executives as compared with men. Salaries, obviously, also show a significant gap between the two genders. So why does this problem still occur? Refinery29 reports the findings of Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, authors of the book The Confidence Code, women are not confident enough.

The authors cite numerous studies that show that women are not confident enough about their personal capabilities as compared with the male population. For example, a man has more guts to apply for a raise or promotion, even if he knows he doesn't exactly meet the job requirements. On the other hand, women choose to wait for the 'right time.'

Male managers have also observed that their female staff who lacked confidence were holding back their movement in the career ladder. Shockingly, female leaders also felt quite negatively about success; they saw themselves as 'impostors' whenever they excelled—although they work hard, they felt they didn't deserve the success.

So, what's a girl to do? It's true that women are more inspired to achieve, but most of them choose to take the backseat in order to not look too imperious. Confidence is the soul to really push yourself into success. If you wouldn't believe in yourself, who else will?

(Screencap from Scandal courtesy of ABC)