A STUDY ON FEMALE AUTISM WITHIN THE SOCIAL REPRESENTATION OF THE SPECTRUM

Abstract

This study looks at female autism in order to understand what influences its social representation. The methodology used is a literature review on the subject. In order to reach this central objective, we first sought to characterize the social representation of ASD - Autism Spectrum Disorder, then to identify the main characteristics of female autism and finally to differentiate personality traits of introversion and shyness from the difficulties of autistic social interaction. A review of the literature revealed that the understanding of ASD has historically been built on male standards, which has led to identification methods that are less sensitive to the female population. Another relevant factor is camouflage, which through strategies such as assimilation, masking and imitation, for example, allows autistic characteristics to be hidden or disguised, especially in the case of girls and women. In addition, social expectations (behaviors commonly expected of girls), combined with the first two factors, make it even more difficult to identify ASD in females. It can therefore be concluded that there is still little visibility of female ASD, because social representation is still very much influenced by stereotyped views, which do not take into account differences in manifestation and female individuality. This means that difficulties are ignored, unnoticed or invalidated, and diagnoses are often late, since they don't present characteristics within the “standard” or severity expected in autism.