‘Does that mean you will be violent?’: A qualitative exploration into Autistic women’s experiences of relationships with lecturers at university

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Phillips, S. (2024). ‘Does that mean you will be violent?’: A qualitative exploration into Autistic women’s experiences of relationships with lecturers at university. Autism, 29(9), 2216-2227. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613241264887

Publication date: 26 Jul 2024 Added to AutiHub: 12 Aug 2026 Type: Article Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
1
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 1 (100.0%)

Abstract

The experiences of Autistic 1 women students at university are seldom explored. In this paper, women refers to anyone who self-identifies as a woman. Eleven Autistic women students participated in artefact creation and semi-structured interviews exploring their experiences with university lecturers. All data centred on their opinions and lived experiences. Five participants were undergraduate students and six participants were postgraduate students. Data were analysed by thematic analysis and data was categorised into two themes. These themes were: ‘Lecturer Impact’ and ‘Autism Awareness and Acceptance’. ‘Lecturer Impact’ centred around both positive relationships participants had at university with their lecturers, and how they navigated ingrained stigmas about autism that some lecturers held. ‘Autism Awareness and Acceptance’ included the ways in which knowledge about autism in women and a reduction in stigma could be achieved at university, primarily by incorporating the voices of Autistic women students. The findings suggest that Autistic women students’ positive relationships with lecturers are key to success. This was supported by participants wanting their opinions and lived experience to be valued particularly to assist with raising a university culture of autism acceptance. An inclusive environment at university, including Autistic women students is needed to improve positive experiences at university. Lay abstract It is documented that more Autistic woman are becoming university students, but their experiences are not often explored. Eleven Autistic women students made artefacts (such as writing, paintings or poems) and took part in interviews to share their experiences at university. Five participants were undergraduate students and six participants were postgraduate students. The artefacts and words participants shared were looked at closely and some common themes were decided. How lecturers talk to Autistic women students was looked at. Participants said they were lucky if they met helpful lecturers. Also, autism acceptance was explored. Overall, how lecturers treat Autistic women at university is very important. Also, Autistic women students’ opinions about making university a more welcoming place need to be listened to.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 14:05.

Cited references
64
With a DOI
59
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
4
13 / 64 (20.3%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
2 / 64 (3.1%)
References with detected author names
62 / 64 (96.9%)
Without detected author names
2
Without a structured title
2
Without a stable identifier
4
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
211
From DOI or external metadata
211
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
4
118 / 211 (55.9%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 93 / 211 (44.1%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
26 / 211 (12.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 26 / 118 (22.0%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 21 / 185 (11.4%).
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