A review by capickles
Women and Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Understanding Life Experiences from Early Childhood to Old Age by Sarah Hendrickx

2.0

Not as progressive as I expected, has misinformation, isn't inclusive and leaves much out. In the absence of any other good literature it has some value, but leaves much to be desired

The first chapter misses. It references controversial theories. It completely fails to distinguish sex and gender (using the word gender when talking about developmental aspects where it is sex). It also emphasises inate neurological differences between sexes even though the general consensus is that there is little inate neurological difference and that socialed gender contributes far more to the different presentation in women.

In further chapters the concept of a 'female autism' is brought up which seems neither feminist nor helpful to autistic community. While women have a different presentation and intersectionality is a big issue here, it's not (as the author implies) a fundamentally different thing. At points it also implies autistics are less empathetic (a widely debunked claim) for instance claiming "teacher's, nurses, etc. are on the other end of the empathy scale". Particularly ironic as professions like teaching may overrepresent autistic people.

It also uses person first language which is generally not preferred by our community.

Of value: Chapter 9 (friendships) has personal experience that resonates, it also helps destigmatize few/singular/no friendships. Chapter 11 (partners) is similarly useful.

"Many women identify with a third sex" 🤦‍♀️ i.e. many (afab) people identify as non-binary. Chapter 10 is almost write off, author clearly has very little understanding of trans people, though the mention of asexuality was a nice suprise

Chapter 13 health: While it is nice to have "they are often experts in their own conditions" this chapter has many inaccuracies & gaps (I swear I'll crack if I see another ED section that only mentions anorexia (particularly as ARFID is common among autistics, there is a quote/reference that describes a eating habits that resemble ARFID but no mention of such a diagnosis)). It's mention of self harm and suicidal ideation does something to destigmatise.