The world of work is changing – as a society, we’re generally moving in the direction of greater inclusivity and a much better understanding of how neurodivergent people live and work, and how to support them in their day-to-day duties and in their careers. Although there’s still a way to go before things are perfect, it’s now probably easier and more common than ever to approach an employer to talk frankly about your needs as an individual with dyslexia, and what you need in order to thrive at work.
However it’s wrong to look at the dyslexic working experience as one that’s the same for everybody. Although many more people are recognising that they have dyslexia, are seeking assessment and diagnosis, and are bringing those needs to the attention of the people and systems that can assist them, there are some fundamental differences in how different people may experience the conjunction of working and dyslexia. And one of these areas that perhaps hasn’t garnered as much attention as it warrants within the global dyslexia community is women who have dyslexia, and how they experience work.
The Numbers Game
For a while, academic research indicated that more boys than girls had dyslexia, but more recently we’ve been erring on the side of the idea that this isn’t actually the case. What can sway these impressions of this is that school-age boys tend to display more ‘textbook’ dyslexia symptoms – but more on that later.
There were studies in the 1970s and again 1990s that seemed to indicate that far more school-age boys tend to exhibit dyslexia-style literacy differences and get referred for diagnosis with a higher frequency, but subsequent forays into the subject seem to indicate that boys and girls have anywhere from an equal split to around a 65%-35% split when it comes to having dyslexia. So it depends on who you ask, and what research they’re working from. There is information out there that suggests that the brains of girls and boys who have dyslexia behave slightly differently, but conclusions differ across research sources. Sadly, there doesn’t appear to be academic research out there at present regarding school-age people who identify as trans or non-binary with dyslexia and their diagnosis frequency, or their experiences.
Diagnosis statistics between boys and girls display a big disparity. Up until the last few years, far more boys than girls across the board were referred for assessment and screening both in the US and in the UK, meaning that there were a higher portion of girls with dyslexia going undiagnosed than there are boys. Recently more women and girls than ever are being referred for dyslexia screenings, which is great news, as screening is often the first step in people getting access to the support and resources that they need to succeed.
The slightly less good news is that a pretty high portion of these referrals are in women aged twenty-one and over, meaning that they’ve gone through most of their educational careers without diagnosis and reading support, and probably entered the workplace with it too.
Differences in Manifestation
The big question is, why might we be missing dyslexia in girls and women?
Research by Arms, Bickett & Graff (2008) suggests that girls habitually miss out on diagnosis because boys are more likely to cause active disruption by not behaving in class when they’re disengaged – girls are more likely to disengage quietly, to daydream or talk quietly, making it less obvious when something is wrong and a less pressing matter to pursue a diagnosis. This hinges on the idea of differences in how both parties are socialised and unconscious gender biases within the education system, however research like this has come under fire by some people in the neurodiversity community more recently as it’s accused of being a little reductive in terms of school experience and gender.
As well as the widely recognised symptoms of dyslexia like these identified by the British and International Dyslexia Associations, a quick trawl around a few sources online suggests that women and girls may…
🧠 Mask their symptoms more, either actively or without knowing they’re doing it
🧠 Have different disengagement patterns – boys and men may be more likely to leave work not done, whereas girls and women may be more likely to actually complete the work, but complete it and send it off at a low standard
🧠 Some sources see girls and women as being more likely to display signs of reading anxiety from an earlier age, and also for these reading anxieties to be misdiagnosed as ‘shyness’
🧠 Engage in ‘diversions and compensations’ – turning in a piece of content or analysis that’s clearly had extra time put into formatting and presentation, for example, as a way of compensating for an expected perceived a lack of effort on the reading or writing side
🧠 Engage in hyper-organisation. Folders, emails and planning may be immaculate and well-organised- but work clarity and standard may be below expected, as either a conscious or unconscious way of trying to order and categorise a confusing experience
The ‘Double Disadvantage’
Many people of all genders choose not to disclose that they have dyslexia on job applications and at work, fearing that it might have an impact on their shot at a role or their career potential. But for people who have dyslexia and the ability to be pregnant and carry a child, many feel that they might be going in at a ‘double disadvantage’.
Since long before our modern conceptualisation of work, many (unscrupulous) employers have demonstrated a preference for male employees as they tend not to need things like time off for pregnancies, maternity leave, and child-rearing absences. Some go one further, and simply see men as more capable as employees, although a) this is incredibly discriminatory, and b) research data doesn’t back this up.
Sadly, these biases are still evident in the working world of today, despite the fact that not all women want children, the ability for men to take paternity leave, the legal requirement of maternity pay, gender discrimination laws, and the fact that many trans men and non-binary people are completely capable of being pregnant and having a child.
So some women with dyslexia find that when they’re applying for a position or a promotion, they keep dyslexia on the down-low as they already feel like they’re less desirable to an employer due to the inference that they have the potential to require maternity cover and child-rearing absences and support. The world has largely changed, and gender discrimination is much less common than it used to be- but it does still happen, and this can play on people’s minds. Declaring dyslexia on a job application or promotion application could be seen by some women as making yourself go in at a ‘double disadvantage’- which could, in theory, see your CV miss out on selection if your prospective employer or promotion manager sadly thought that way.
And it bleeds into the everyday working experiences of women with dyslexia too – many women feel less confident raising the idea of dyslexia support in their role as they already feel as if they’re at a disadvantage, complicating matters, or somehow slightly removed from their achievements and competencies in a role by way of their gender.
What does the future look like?
As time wears on, things get better. Younger generations of working women are far more likely to feel secure enough to raise their need for support and approach employers with dyslexia on their applications- we’re fostering a much more neurodiverse approach to teams in 2022, and neurodivergent people are having their skills recognised and celebrated. We do need to foster a better dialogue about women and dyslexia in our communities, however, as our one-size-fits-all symptom approach tends to exclude many people.
We also need to work on how as workplaces, we approach the idea of neurodiverse hiring and become institutions whose track records inspire the confidence and comfort that allow all people with dyslexia to feel able to be open about their needs. This goes beyond writing a few lines on being a neurodiversity-positive employer on application forms – we need to demonstrate it in our hiring and our employee support actions too, especially when it comes to supporting women, trans people, and non-binary people.
Simply put, when it comes to dyslexia at work, we’re making a lot of progress – but we need to make sure that that progress comes at the same rate for everybody, and we’re not creating a homogenised landscape in which some groups are left behind.