Work at the intersection of neurodivergence and gender

Being a neurodivergent woman in the workplace can be a uniquely frustrating experience, but according to at least two neurodivergent women, it doesn’t have to be.

Alum Brittany Vine, manager, innovation and customer experience at United Way Calgary, and Elyse Bouvier, a communications specialist at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, discuss their experiences as women with ADHD. They share the impact that living at the intersection of gender and neurodiversity has on their professional lives and the strategies they use to find success.

Change and challenge

Vine wants to destigmatize brains that need “change and challenge” to stay engaged. Bouvier agrees.

“I have a fear for myself of when am I going to get bored of this job. You’re not supposed to get bored but if you do there’s something wrong with you,” says Bouvier.

This can manifest in different ways. Changing levels of productivity and job-hopping are ways that Vine and Bouvier experienced this throughout their professional lives. Vine adds that the changes to productivity and subsequent stigma can be further exaggerated for anyone with a menstrual cycle.

“When you think about some women, our productivity and our attention is also influenced by our hormone cycles,” Vine says.

Neurodivergent traits can also be perceived differently according to gender. Vine and Bouvier are proud of their creativity and ability to think of novel ways to perform their work. However, early in their careers, they found that these traits were often seen as being difficult or confrontational.

“There’s the component of being like a young woman with ADHD, right? Where I think if I was like a young man in the workplace, I actually think some of the things that we’re seeing as me being confrontational and challenging would be viewed differently,” says Vine.

While they initially struggled against this stigma, Vine and Bouvier found later in their careers that these experiences reflected a poor fit with their jobs, rather than a personal lack of discipline. Vine encourages neurodivergent people to experiment and try different kinds of work. 

“The best gift that I gave myself was permission to change course,” says Vine.

Being strategic

Strategies to work with, rather than against, their neurodivergent brains make all the difference for Vine and Bouvier. For Vine, this means switching over to creative project-based work.

“That’s why I ended up in Innovation. The style of work that we do – we use like design thinking and human-centered design – really brings together all my favourite things."

Bouvier finds a flexible work environment to be instrumental to her success; options like working from home, being results-oriented rather than routine-oriented, and learning to trust the natural rhythm of the creative process.

“I have days where my productivity seems lower, but I’m brainstorming things and I’m giving my brain a little bit of room to just kind of noodle on ideas and be creative.”

Vine says working at her brain’s natural pace helps her to accept her unique strengths and needs. “We’re like sprinters as opposed to long distance runners,” says Vine regarding the pace of her work. She uses the example of being able to finish work that might take another person eight hours in three. However, Vine highlights that this isn’t always sustainable, and recovery time is essential.

Sharing their story

Vine and Bouvier know that barriers persist for neurodivergent people, particularly for people who experience multiple types of discrimination. 

“Individual coping strategies are simply not enough,” says Bouvier.

Vine adds that sharing personal stories is an important step in minimizing the impact of the barriers both women experienced throughout their careers.

“We still have a lot of work to do to identify what accommodations can look like because I think as much as there are things that I have that work well for me, it's like I stumbled on them by accident. We shouldn’t all have to stumble onto accommodations by accident.”

Bouvier surmises, “helping one type of brain helps all the brains.”

We invite the UCalgary community to share their experiences and work towards neuro-inclusion together.

Join UCalgary’s neuro-inclusion movement. Share your story. Email nd.wil@ucalgary.ca