Women and Dyslexia

in the Workforce

Jan Halfpenny

We have a situation folks…

Unidentified dyslexia

Scottish Entrepreneur:

Michelle Mone

“I felt something was wrong before I was tested...as over the years I havestruggled with reading, but as I didn’trealise I was dyslexic, I didn’t get any

support at school.” (1)©Halfpenny Development 2014

Professor Julie Logan: University of Bristol 2001

1 in 5 of the UK’s entrepreneurs she surveyed was dyslexic

twice the rate expected for adults in the UK (1 in 10) (2)

one in three of the self-employed in UK are women

almost 1.5 million women self-employed

(Women in Enterprise: A Different Perspective, RBS Group 2013).

c.300,000 are dyslexic©Halfpenny Development 2014

Michelle is not on her own…

Michelle is not on her own…

There is a lack of early identification of dyslexia in UK schools –

especially in girls.

• Some studies show no significant gender difference, yet schools shown to

identify significantly more boys than girls as dyslexic at a young age (3).

• Overt behaviour attracts attention?

• Girls tend to adopt more private coping strategies and draw less formal

attention to their needs (4)?©Halfpenny Development 2014

And to make it more challenging…

• Not all dyslexics struggle with reading.

• Learning specialists Dr. Brock Eide and Dr. Fernette Eide suggest that:

“A few, whom we’ve called stealth dyslexics, have problems so subtle or “stealthy” that they evade early detection and often

only come to attention later for problems with writing or underperformance.”(5)

©Halfpenny Development 2014

But for some there is a second chance…

• Dyslexic higher education students in 1999:

Nearly half were identified as dyslexic only after they had left school and gone on to university (6).

• Complexity of task in relation to demands on literacy.

• Evidence from higher education shows the importance of providing support: One-to-one specialist tuition and technology.

©Halfpenny Development 2014

However…

• Many entrepreneurs do not routinely take the university route.

• Access To Work (2011) scheme delivered employment support to approximately just one in every one thousand dyslexic workers in the UK (7).

• They did not even keep figures on how many dyslexic self-employed people the scheme had helped (8).

Despite:

• 88% of dyslexics surveyed by Business Link (2008) said they thought that dyslexia presented barriers to starting a business (9).

©Halfpenny Development 2014

So the situation so far is:• More dyslexic girls than boys are thought to remain outside the support

framework at school.

• If dyslexia is missed at school there is a chance it will be picked up in higher education.

• If women choose a non-university path, their chances of being spotted are fewer.

• They grow in to adults who are unlikely to have been assessed or supported, but are still affected by dyslexia every time they process information.

• There are consequences for female identity, stress levels, the family, relationships and the economy.

• Co-occurrence needs to be considered more frequently.

• There are issues with unidentified dyslexia in all professions.

©Halfpenny Development 2014

References:

1. Dyslexia Scotland, 2011, Dyslexia and Us: A collection of personal stories, Dyslexia Scotland

2. Logan, J., 2001, Entrepreneurial success: A study of the incidence of dyslexia in the entrepreneurial population and the influence of dyslexia on success, University of Bristol

3.Frey, W., 1990, Schools miss out on dyslexic engineers, IEEE Spectrum Gale Group, 2008, Encyclopaedia of Medicine, Gale Group Inc.

4. Hales, T., (2005), How can you effectively target boys learning in the classroom? A small-scale enquiry focusing on how to help boys improve their achievement, Journal of the Cardiff School of Education, Volume 3, September 2005

5.Singleton, C. H. (Chair), 1999, Dyslexia in Higher Education: Policy, Provision and Practice, Report of the National Working Party on Dyslexia in Higher Education

6.Eide, B., & Eide, F., 2011, The Dyslexic Advantage, Hay House

7. DWP Employment Group, 2011, Access To Work Official Statistics July 2011, Department for Work

and Pensions

8. DWP, 2012, Response to Access To Work Statistic Enquiry, Disability Employment Analysis Team

9. Business Link, 2008, Dyslexia and Start-up Businesses, Business Link

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