>>10962103Clinical reality is that autism in women is almost always less severe.
For every 8 boys who are non-verbal and autistic at age 4, maybe 2 or three girls will be non-verbal.
For higher functioning people with ASD, this same trend occurs in their teens: the autistic boys will have maybe 1 or 2 (autistic) friends, no girlfriends, and can't get hired or keep a job, meanwhile the higher functioning autistic girls will have multiple friends, a job, and a boyfriend.
It's only the boys who are high functioning autistic and have very high IQs (125+), actively work on social skills, and good work ethic that seem to ever attain a level of social thriving that the typical high function autistic girl achieves.
And that's the problem. Psychological disorders are defined by the fact that they cause considerable harm and lack of well-being if left untreated. But girls with weird tastes and somewhat poor social skills usually don't experience these harms. So is it really clinically significant enough to count as autism?
