My eldest daughter is obsessed with anything that is Ryan Murphy. So, she and I sat yesterday to watch his new Netflix series, The Politician. What I like about Murphy’s projects, is that he tackles many important social issues, often in an undeclared way. One of those hidden social issues is the subject at hand.

In one of the episodes, Payton Hobart, the main character, finds out he’s on the waiting list for acceptance into Harvard. When telling his girlfriend, Alice Charles, about what had happened, he finds out she, unlike him, was accepted. She immediately begins belittling her accomplishment, trying to come up with different reasons that would justify why she was accepted while he wasn’t.

This is such an important matter, but I’m afraid it might have gone over people’s heads. I feel as if we, as women, do that more than we wish to admit. See, some believe that by belittling themselves, they would appear modest. However, running yourself down and belittling yourself isn’t modesty.

What it is is the fast lane to low self-esteem. If you’ll keep running yourself down, there is a real danger that you’ll believe it eventually. You will start to question your achievements, to ask: “Maybe it’s really not good enough? Maybe I’m actually not good enough?”

Besides, being a woman in today’s world is hard enough. Don’t give anyone, including yourself, a reason to put women down. It is not only you that will believe what you say of yourself, but others will too. This could harm so many aspects of your life, professionally and personally. You have to fight for what you deserve, what you have earned from all of your hard work.

So, never run yourself down or belittle yourself, as people will take you seriously, but most dangerously, you might.