Helen Joyce
Helen Joyce | |
---|---|
Born | 1968 (age 56–57)[1] |
Education | |
Occupation(s) | Journalist Activist |
Employer(s) | The Economist (as journalist 2005-2022) |
Notable work | Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality |
Family |
|
Website | thehelenjoyce |
Helen Joyce (born 1968) is an Irish journalist and gender critical activist. She studied as a mathematician and worked in academia before becoming a journalist. Joyce began working for The Economist as education correspondent for its Britain section in 2005 and has since held several senior positions, including finance editor and international editor.[3] She published her book Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality in 2021.
Early life and education
She was born in 1968 in Dublin, Ireland, and moved to Bray, County Wicklow at age 8.[1] She's the oldest of nine children of James "Jimmy" and Maureen Joyce, five boys and four girls. Five of her younger siblings — Gus, Ed, Dominick, Isobel, and Cecelia Joyce — have played international cricket for Ireland, while Ed has also played for the England test side.[4][5] Brothers Johnny and Damian played club cricket.[6][7] Johnny is an international chess player.[5] Joyce moved to England at age 16 to attend musical theatre college, but dropped out after two years. In 1987, she enrolled at Trinity College, Dublin, where she was elected a Scholar in 1989,[8] and received a BA in mathematics in 1991. She next completed Part III of the Mathematical Tripos for a Master of Advanced Studies with distinction at the University of Cambridge, earning a scholarship from the British Council and a PhD place at University College London. She got a PhD in geometric measure theory at University College London (1995) with the dissertation "Packing measures, packing dimensions, and the existence of sets of positive finite measure" under David Preiss.[9][10] She then took a postdoctoral position in Cardiff, and spent two years at Finland's University of Jyväskylä on a Marie Curie research fellowship funded by the European Union.[11]
Career
In 2000 Joyce joined the Millennium Mathematics Project (MMP) at the University of Cambridge an organisation set up to advocate for mathematics education in schools and other venues. Primarily working on telecommunication and video education projects with schools.[11] In 2002 she was named editor of the project's online Plus Magazine, a position she held for three years. In 2004 she also became founding editor for the Royal Statistical Society's quarterly magazine Significance.[11][3] In 2005 Joyce became an education correspondent for The Economist.[3] Four years later she transferred to the newspaper's project exploring how to best present statistics to readers. In August 2010 she moved to São Paulo to become The Economist′s Brazil bureau chief,[11] a position she held through 2013. Returning to London she served as The Economist′s finance editor and international editor and in March 2020 became its executive editor for events business.[3] In May 2024 Joyce along with Rabbi Harvey Belovski launched a new venture called H2Org which aims to "inspire and support others to grow, change and succeed".[12]
Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality
In July 2021, Joyce's book Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, was published by Oneworld Publications. The book sold well, debuting within a week of its publication at number 7 on The Sunday Times list of bestselling general hardbacks[13] and remaining in the top 10 for a second week.[14] It was named as one of the year's best books by The Times.[15] The book received other positive reviews in the Evening Standard,[16] New Statesman,[17] and The Scotsman.[18] The Times regular columnist David Aaronovitch wrote that "Joyce [examines] a new ideology about gender. This holds that biological sex is as much a 'social construct' as the idea of gender is. One benefit of Joyce's book is its intellectual clarity and its refusal to compromise. So she takes apart this ideology of gender with a cold rigour."[19] Kathleen Stock, then a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex and author of Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism (2021), gave Trans a 5-star review at The Telegraph, calling it a "superlative critical analysis of trans activism" and that "Joyce shows an impressive capacity to handle complex statistics, legal statutes, and other bits of evidence without losing clarity or narrative drive."[20] The Guardian gave it a mixed review.[21] A review at Publishers Weekly criticized the book as "alarmist" and a "one-sided takedown" that "comes up short."[22] The book was shortlisted for the 2023 John Maddox Prize.[23]
Talks
In October 2022, Joyce participated in an interview with economist Partha Dasgupta at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.[24][25] Philosopher Arif Ahmed hosted the event, titled "Criticising gender-identity ideology: what happens when speech is silenced".[25] Protestors chanted "trans rights are human rights" and banged drums outside the event.[24] The college master Pippa Rogerson and senior tutor Andrew Spencer boycotted the event and described Joyce's views as "polemics".[24] In response, Joyce published an open letter entitled "Has Cambridge abandoned debate?" in The Spectator, in which she argued that "The academic commitment to fair-minded debate is over."[26]
Personal life
Joyce lives in Cambridge with her husband and two sons.[27][28] She had unexplained infertility and used IVF to conceive her children.[29] Joyce was raised Irish Catholic, but is now an atheist.[1] She says of her atheism, "It wasn't because I was unhappy... My convent school was actually quite a nice place, and I loved our RE [religious education] lessons... I just don't think it's true."[30]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Helen Joyce in conversation with Sir Partha Dasgupta, Caius College Cambridge, 25 October 2022". YouTube. 25 October 2022. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
- ↑ Balasundaram, Nemesha. "Ed Joyce on his England past, 2015 World Cup ambitions and the future of Ireland cricket". The Irish Post. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Editorial directory". The Economist. Archived from the original on 7 September 2022.
- ↑ "Meet the lawyer who opens the batting for Ireland". The Law Society Gazette. Law Society of Ireland. 6 April 2018. Archived from the original on 29 July 2019.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Wigmore, Tim (June 2016). "The first family of cricket". The Cricket Monthly. Archived from the original on 3 June 2016.
- ↑ Fitzgerald, James (15 August 2006). "The Cricket Family Joyce". Irish Times.
- ↑ S. Sudarshanan. "Ep.5: The Joy(ce)s of cricket". Clean Bowled Podcast (Podcast). Women's CricZone.
- ↑ "TCD Scholars Since 1925". Retrieved 7 July 2017.
- ↑ "Helen Janeith Joyce". Mathematics Genealogy Project. Archived from the original on 30 June 2020.
- ↑ Joyce, Helen Janeith (1995). Packing measures, packing dimensions, and the existence of sets of positive finite measure. UCL Discovery (Doctoral). Archived from the original on 21 April 2021.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Freiberger, Marianne (12 July 2010). "Career interview: Brazil correspondent, The Economist". Plus Magazine. Archived from the original on 13 May 2021.
- ↑ "More about H2Org". H2Org. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
- ↑ "The Sunday Times Bestsellers List—the UK's definitive book sales chart". The Sunday Times. 23 July 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
- ↑ "The Sunday Times Bestsellers List—the UK's definitive book sales chart". The Sunday Times. 30 July 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
- ↑ The Times and Sunday Times literary teams (23 July 2021). "The best books of 2021". The Times. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
- ↑ O'Malley, Stella (12 July 2021). "Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality by Helen Joyce review: A tour de force". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 12 July 2021.
- ↑ Perry, Louise (July 2021). "It's still possible to "cancel" gender-critical feminists, but this strategy won't work". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 28 July 2021.
- ↑ Dalgety, Susan (16 July 2021). "Dear Nicola Sturgeon, please read this plea from a sister feminist about the trans debate – Susan Dalgety". The Scotsman. Archived from the original on 16 July 2021.
- ↑ Aaronovitch, David (16 July 2021). "Trans by Helen Joyce review—Women exist! The facts of biology trump ideology". The Times. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
- ↑ Stock, Kathleen (18 July 2021). "Toddlers transitioning, male rapists in women's prisons: this is the book you need to read about trans activism". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 18 July 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
- ↑ Hinsliff, Gaby (18 July 2021). "Trans by Helen Joyce; Material Girls by Kathleen Stock – reviews". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 18 July 2021. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
- ↑ "Nonfiction Book Review: Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality by Helen Joyce. Oneworld, $25.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-86154-049-5". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
- ↑ "2023 Maddox Prize". Sense about Science. 24 October 2023. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Somerville, Ewan (29 October 2022). "Cambridge alumni pulling funding from college after academics said gender speaker was 'hateful'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 Shorrock, Bella; Byrom, Meg; Jones, Hugh. "Students condemn decision to host gender critical feminist". Varsity. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
- ↑ Joyce, Helen (23 October 2022). "Has Cambridge abandoned debate?". The Spectator. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
- ↑ Joyce, Helen; Favale, Abigail (24 February 2022). "Body and Identity | Abigail Favale & Helen Joyce | New York Encounter 2022". YouTube (Interview). Interviewed by Holly Peterson. 00:01:03.
- ↑ Park, Emma (18 November 2022). "'A godless neo-religion' – interview with Helen Joyce on the trans debate". The Freethinker.
- ↑ Joyce, Helen (7 June 2022). "The Reality of Trans with Helen Joyce (Part 1)". YouTube (Interview). Interviewed by Joey Dumont. 01:10:13.
- ↑ Joyce, Helen (4 December 2023). "Helen Joyce - The God Cast interview". The God Cast (Interview). Interviewed by Fr Alex Frost.
External links
- Living people
- Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
- Alumni of the University of Cambridge
- Alumni of University College London
- 21st-century Irish women journalists
- Irish emigrants to the United Kingdom
- Scholars of Trinity College Dublin
- Women business and financial journalists
- The Economist people
- Irish atheists
- People from Bray, County Wicklow
- Joyce family
- 1968 births