Why Do I Focus on Autistic Women?
- Amanda Broderick
- Feb 3
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 4
(Trigger warning , mentions of sexual assault)
Why do I focus so much on Autistic Women? Men are Autistic Too.
(Yes I was asked this question).
It is true, men are Autistic too. For a long time, the figure used has been that there are 4 Autistic men to every Autistic woman. The result of this has been that much of the research we rely on, the diagnostic tools used, and the experiences talked about when discussing Autism were focused on male experiences, often focused on childhood. There was an assumption (as in many other areas) that the male experience and the female experience mirrored one another. There has been a belief that if you’ve met one Autistic person, you’ve met them all. The problem is that Autism in Assigned Female at Birth people presents differently than it does in Assigned Male at Birth people. There are more verbal social cues given to women and girls, there are fewer excuses, “Boys will be boys” after all. Girls are taught to internalize their Autistic traits leading to a high degree of masking. For some women it feels that their real self has disappeared and that all that is left is their mask.
The exclusion of women from research and discussion has had devastating consequences, in terms of understanding the impact of Autism on the lives of women. 90 percent of Autistic women are sexually assaulted during their lifespan (Cazalis, et al., 2022). Autistic women are 2 to 3 times more likely than allistic women and four times more likely than Autistic men to be sexually assaulted (Cazalis, et. al., 2022). Some Autistic women are more vulnerable due to extreme people pleasing, others are more vulnerable due to delayed or absent verbal speech, others are more naive. When we exclude women from Autism conversations we fail to understand Autistic women.
Just for a moment, let’s come back to the belief that the ratio of Autistic men to women is 4 to 1. This means that we have for decades believed that there are 4 Autistic men to every Autistic woman. On the surface this might make an argument that the research and discussion should focus more on Autistic men. The problem is that in a study released in 2022, the researchers found that the ratio is more likely to be 3 to 4 (McCrossin, 2022). This means that potentially for every three Autistic men, there are four Autistic women. At 18 years old, as many as 80 percent of Autistic women remain undiagnosed, seriously impacting their mental health (McCrossin, 2022).
I talk more about Autistic Assigned Female at Birth people, because so much of the discussion for decades has centered on men and Assigned Male at Birth People. So much of the discussion has focussed on male perceptions of Autism and it’s challenges. So much of the diagnosis revolves around a “male centered” model. I must add, to be clear, that not all men with Autism are the same, but these ideas about Autism persist. I talk about Autistic women because my lived experience is in how Autism impacts women. I talk about Autistic women because I respect the role that mothers play in nurturing their children, arranging services for their children, in balancing out their homes and doing so while sacrificing their own peace. I want to be clear, men make sacrifices for their families too. But my experience is with women. My authentic, sincere and honest lived experience is that of an Autistic woman, an Autistic wife, an Autistic mother. I cannot separate my expertise or my interest from my social location as a woman.
Cazalis F, Reyes E, Leduc S, Gourion D. Evidence That Nine Autistic Women Out of Ten Have Been Victims of Sexual Violence. Front Behav Neurosci. 2022 Apr 26;16:852203. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.852203. PMID: 35558435; PMCID: PMC9087551.
McCrossin R. Finding the True Number of Females with Autistic Spectrum Disorder by Estimating the Biases in Initial Recognition and Clinical Diagnosis. Children (Basel). 2022 Feb 17;9(2):272. doi: 10.3390/children9020272. PMID: 35204992; PMCID: PMC8870038.
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