I was recently diagnosed with high functioning autism, at age 40 no less. As a teacher I’ve worked professionally with autistic students for decades. I worked at a school for several years geared towards high functioning autism. There were maybe 5 girls in a school of 60 kids. I recall the staff discussing why so few girls were diagnosed, and the consensus, almond male staff members was that women were just naturally more social so very rarely do we actually develop autism. I remember telling them this was very wrong, and there had to be other reasons at play. They told me diagnosis is a medical procedure and therefore accurate. There must be fewer autistic girls diagnosed because there are fewer of them.
I’m so glad the conversation is changing now exposing the bias. So many of us are not diagnosed until way later, or never at all.