The history of autism is male. It is time for women and girls to enter the spotlight

When autistic girls meet clinicians, they are often misdiagnosed with anxiety, depression, personality disorders – or receive no diagnosis at all. Autism’s ‘male spotlight’ means we are only now starting to redress this profound injustice.

In The Lost Girls of Autism, renowned brain scientist Gina Rippon delves into the emerging science of female autism, asking why it has been systematically ignored for so long. Generations of researchers, convinced autism was a male problem, simply didn’t bother looking for it in women. But it is now becoming increasingly clear that many autistic women and girls do not fit the traditional, male, model of autism. Instead, they camouflage and mask, hiding their autistic traits to accommodate a society that shuns them.

Urgent and insightful, this is a searching examination of how sexism has biased our understanding of autism. Informed by the latest research in psychology and neuroscience, The Lost Girls of Autism is a clarion call for society to recognize the full spectrum of autistic experience.

Gina Rippon will be ‘In Conversation’ with Sophie Longley, and she will also be signing copies of her new book, The Lost Girls of Autism, which will be available to purchase on the night.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Gina Rippon is Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Neuroimaging at the Aston Brain Centre, Birmingham. Her research involves state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques, investigating how the brain interacts with its world. She is an outspoken critic of outdated gender stereotypes in the field, and is the author of The Gendered Brain and The Lost Girls of Autism.

CHAIR BIOGRAPHY

Sophie Longley runs her own mentoring business for late-diagnosed (and identified) autistic women. She provides strengths-based mentoring in areas such as: reframing and processing a later in life autism diagnosis, employment & careers and self-advocacy skills. She is also an autism researcher, with an MSc in Psychology, and conducted research on the experiences of autistic women diagnosed in mid-late adulthood. 

This event will take place upstairs in The Nightingale Room at The Grand Central Pub, Brighton. Unfortunately there is no wheelchair access available at this venue.

• DOORS OPEN : 19:00

• TALK STARTS : 19:30

• AUDIENCE Q&A : 20:30

• BOOK SIGNING : 21:00 (Books available to purchase on the night)