Interesting Remarks!

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I live in England.

Today I was talking through my job options with the manager of my local job center and she said too me "there are so many young men I interview with aspergers" (she then continued) "But I think hardly any females have aspergers syndrome and I don't know any that do have it". I think she was implying that she did not believe that AS effected females but just males.

I was surprised by her comments and I said too her "Well I think that is because aspergers overlooked and they can also hide it better than males can."

What do you think of her comments? This lady's job is too help people with disabilities find employment?

I think that she meant 'there aren't anywhere near as many female Aspeis as there are male Aspies'.
She says this because she has come across more men than women with the condition.

I think that she was just making a statement about her life experience with Aspies. Not implying that all Aspies are men.

I think she sounds ignorant and in need of more education if that's what position she holds...

Whatever. I'm a female and I can't "hide" it.

It also looks like the manager has a hard time hiding her ignorance.

It is mainly a male thing.

I forget the stats but its clearly a male dominant condition.

There are less females who are diagnosed with Aspergers than females, but that doesn't necessarily mean there are less females with Aspergers. We just might not be noticing it as much in females, for whatever reason. I doubt that anyone can "hide" a condition like Aspergers deliberately, especially if they might not know what that is. So I think you're right about that, Jamesy.

Some disorders don't happen evenly in males and females.

People tend to say things based on their experience.

Maybe that's why she said it.

I'd let her off, her job is to help get people work not be a walking encyclopedia or statistics expert. As long is she knows he basics of your disabillity and any female with AS she might face in the future I would let her just do her job.

I think its more of how others perceive the AS behavior. In a man its very visible, a woman it can be easily passed for a number of personality types.

I hate to say this since I know many women disagree but fact is a woman's brain is wired for communication a lot more than male brains are (we're wired for hand-eye coordination more than speech). Speech is key to socializing and due to this you girls do tend to have an adaptive advantage when dealing with AS that guys with AS don't have. That tends to be the tipping point in what makes it hard for women with AS to be identified as having AS rather than simply having personality quirks.

You can 'hide' a condition like Aspergers. Even if you don't know what it is. I used to. I looked at how my peers acted, and then consciously copied them (mainly because I knew I was different). A lot of people copy those around them to fit in, NTs and Aspies.

Aghogday recently posted a video featuring Christopher Gillberg talking about autism. One of the things that came up was that he said that based on what he's seen in practice, that the ration of autistic men to women is closer to 1:1.5 and not the previously stated numbers like 1:4 or 1:10. I think he also addressed the fact that often, girls who present with ADHD or autistic symptom tend to have those symptoms dismissed as other things such as depression, anxiety, personality disorders, and so on.

Whatever the real stats may be, that fact (which has been confirmed in studies) means that it is not entirely accurate to say that it is "clearly a male dominant condition" because the data such a statement is based on is suspect.

I forgot to mention the tendency to assign stereotypically feminine traits to women as the reason why women are underdiagnosed. This is actually one of the reasons for underdiagnosis - not really so much because autistic women really have such traits as "more wired for communication" or whatever nonsense gets bruited about to explain the diagnostic discrepancy. It's more that what women do is interpreted differently from what men do. So... autistic girls tend to be more likely to be missed because their behavior is misinterpreted as gender appropriate, while autistic boys are less likely to have that assumption applied to them.

I think she was stating a fact - most people with a diagnosis of Aspergers are male. That's not to say that most people with Aspergers are male. I don't know if it is truly more common in males or if it's just caused by the lack of detection and diagnosis in females.

I'm trying to set up a local support group for parents of girls with Aspergers, as well as a social group for the girls. My main reason is that I know of absolutely no girls with a diagnosis Aspergers and would love for my daughter to meet some other girls. I have on-line friends with girls, but no-one nearby. But, amongst just my close acquaintances, I know 4 boys (and know of many more). I posted some messages on the local noticeboard of a very popular parenting website. I've had absolutely no feedback from anyone. If the group was for boys and girls, I'm pretty sure I would have had some responses.

agreed

Huh? I think even just on this forum there are a good number of people who "hide" it every day.