My Research Approach

My research focuses on the workplace experiences of autistic, menopausal women and their specific support needs. I am interested in their stories, their lived experience, and their workplace decisions.

My research is participatory, involving autistic women throughout the process, researching with them and not on them. I aim for my research to have real world impact as well as academic impact.

Academic Impact

Research on autistic women at work is limited, especially when combined with menopause. There is even less when we look at autistic women in senior leadership.

Workplace Impact

Although menopause is gaining research interest, autistic menopause is different. We need to understand how to support all women during menopause.

Steering Groups

Why use co-design…

An innovative approach as currently an underutilised method with autistic women. Very few examples of an autistic researcher co-designing with autistic women.

Known to have positive benefits for participants including feelings of empowerment, illumination and collective advocacy (Pellicano et al., 2022).

In order to gain insight relating to my scope, recruitment strategies, process, methods and questioning framework, I created both Scottish and Canadian Steering Groups made up of autistic, menopausal women in senior leadership. Feedback from each session influenced my process, communication and method choice taking place within my pilot.

Directly addressed a research priority of autistic adults (Grove et al, 2024) and fulfils a ‘requirement of ‘excellence’ in neurodiversity research (Fletcher-Watson et al., 2021).

Allows for easier translation into practice (Pearce et al., 2022) with initiated recommendations bringing about real-world impact (Taylor-Bower, Plaisted-Grant & Archer., 2024)

Participant Quotes

  • When I was first diagnosed, I felt like a bit of a fraud. I'm capable, I've achieved quite a lot, so I needed to see people in leadership roles like me. That's what this Steering Group gave me.

    Canadian Steering Group Member

  • It felt as if everything was well anticipated, I was given information so clearly and thoughtfully and I knew I was going to be listened to as well. It was brilliant.

    Scottish Steering Group Member

  • Just hearing other people's experiences has helped me. It reaffirms that I am not alone, it's not just me.

    Canadian Steering Group Member

Pilot Study

My recently completed Pilot study, examines the workplace experiences and employment decisions of autistic, peri/menopausal professional women at work. The pilot has allowed me to evaluate my questioning framework as well as trialling my method choices before progressing to my main research later this year.

Following Steering Group feedback, and to suit participant preferences and strengths, I am offering a choice of method; a Workplace History, akin to a semi-structured interview and Rivers of Life, a creative storytelling approach.

Main Research

My main research is due to take place at the end of 2026 and once ethical approval has been received, recruitment will begin. If you would like to keep in be kept informed about when recruitment is taking place (in Scotland & Canada), please get in touch.

Participant information will be available in both video and text form, with initial conversations to discuss participation able to take place online or via email depending on your preferences.