Short report: Gendered workplace social interaction processes in autism.
Workplace social stress splits along gender lines for autistic adults, so customize supports by gender.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team talked with autistic adults about their daily social life at work.
They asked men and women to describe what felt hard, awkward, or helpful.
The goal was to see if gender shapes the social stress people feel on the job.
What they found
Autistic women and men told different stories.
Women worried about fitting female small-talk rules.
Men felt pressure to join male banter and sports chat.
Both groups wanted clearer rules, but each needed tweaks that matched their gendered world.
How this fits with other research
Kanfiszer et al. (2017) and Seers et al. (2021) already showed that autistic women wrestle with feminine social rules.
Sutton et al. (2022) move the lens from home and friends to the office, so the story now covers work life too.
Baldwin et al. (2016) surveyed 82 women and found huge unmet workplace needs.
The new study explains why: social stress is gender-tuned, so one-size supports miss the mark.
Lam et al. (2025) add a twist.
Hong Kong autistic women also feel dismissed, but culture changes the flavor.
Together the papers say gender matters everywhere, yet each setting and culture tweaks the details.
Why it matters
If you write job coaching plans, add a gender check box.
Ask each client where social fatigue hits hardest: small-talk with female peers or locker-room jokes with male crew.
Then tailor scripts, break schedules, or peer buddies to that spot.
A five-minute gender-specific tweak can save hours of burnout later.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Navigating workplace social interactions can be stressful for autistic people and be experienced differently by gender. A better understanding of the autistic experience of these difficulties is needed to inform effective policy, practice, and individualized support. METHOD: Fifty-five autistic individuals (n women=32; n men=22) participated in either an online survey or focus group. Data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. RESULTS: The data suggests that the social and interaction expectations placed upon autistic individuals differ by gender and can contribute to occupational stress. CONCLUSIONS: The data provides a basis for further investigation considering Conservation of Resources Theory and its practical application to inform reasonable adjustments in the workplace for autistic people. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: The gendered workplace experiences of autistic people is an emerging area of research. However, how workplace social interactions are experienced by each gender remains under-researched. An understanding of this could help decrease occupational stress, inform reasonable adjustments, and increase labor market participation in this population. This paper adds to the existing literature in showing that workplace social interactions for autistic people are experienced differently by gender. As such, the implications in the experience of occupational stress may also differ. Therefore, the importance of having reasonable adjustments in the workplace that account for gender is highlighted.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2022 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2022.104310