Autism in women

Making the invisible visible

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the impact of gender on health research, access to healthcare, and the visual representation of diseases and conditions. It explores the lack of data disaggregation by sex and the underrepresentation of women in clinical trials, as well as the relevance of communication and advertising, which, if misused, could perpetuate this bias. The implications of this gender bias in drug advertising and the generation of medical knowledge are also examined.

Using the content analysis methodology, a review of the visual symbols of autism over time is carried out and the implications of gender bias in their visual representation are studied. Ian Hacking's concept of dynamic nominalism is used to understand how designations affect perception, behavior and the need for new inclusive representations.

He analyzes the impact of these representations on the self-perception and recognition of autistic women, addressing the challenges of late diagnosis and the use of androcentric diagnostic tools, as well as the need for new inclusive representations.

The study concludes that addressing gender bias in medical research and the design of visual representations is crucial to improving the attention and recognition of women.