Helen Joyce

Helen Joyce (born 1969)^[1] is an Irish journalist who is executive editor for events business of The Economist.^[2] She began working for the newspaper's Britain section in 2005 as its education correspondent, and has held several senior positions including finance editor and international editor.^[2]

Early life and education[]

She was born in Ireland in 1969. She is the oldest of nine children. Five of her younger siblings, Ed Joyce, Gus Joyce, Dominick Joyce, Isobel Joyce and Cecelia Joyce, have played international cricket for Ireland, while Ed has also played for the England test side.^[3]

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,^[4] graduating after four years with a mathematics degree. She next completed with distinction Part III of the Mathematical Tripos at the University of Cambridge, earning a scholarship from the British Council and a PhD place at University College London. After three years studying fractals under the supervision of David Preiss, Joyce was awarded a PhD in geometric measure theory. 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.^[1]

Career[]

Returning to University College London to work on a project run by the geology department, Joyce became interested in what she later described as "this business of telling non-mathematicians about maths." In 2000, she joined the newly launched Millennium Mathematics Project at the University of Cambridge. 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.^[1]

In 2005, Joyce became education correspondent for The Economist.^[2] 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,^[1] which 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.^[2]

Criticism of transgender activism[]

In July 2018, Joyce curated a series of articles on transgender identity in The Economist.^[5]

In March 2019, The Daily Dot reported that Joyce, "a top editor at the Economist, has made questionable comments about trans people for years and continues to be employed at the publication." According to The Daily Dot, Joyce "claimed, among other things, that the trans rights movement is enabling sexual predators," and on Twitter "referred to puberty blockers or other treatments that affirm a trans child's sense of self as 'sickening.' She has also called these procedures 'child abuse,' 'unethical medicine,' 'mass experimentation,' and a 'global scandal.'" The Daily Dot further cited a December 2018 article by Joyce in the Australian online magazine Quillette labelling transgender ideology "the new patriarchy" and asserting that "trans radicalism hurts women, children—and trans people themselves." GLAAD, called Joyce's statements "alarming" and said they have "no place in a newsroom." Joyce responded that Anthony G. Watson, a member of GLAAD's board based in the UK, was conducting an unprovoked harassment campaign against her.^[6]

Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality[]

In July 2021, Joyce's book, Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, was published by Oneworld Publications. It was named one of the year's best books by The Times,^[7] where 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."^[8] Kathleen Stock, 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 observing that "Joyce shows an impressive capacity to handle complex statistics, legal statutes, and other bits of evidence without losing clarity or narrative drive."^[9] The book received other positive reviews in the Evening Standard,^[10] New Statesman,^[11] and The Scotsman.^[12] The Guardian gave it a mixed review.^[13] A review at Publishers Weekly criticized the book as "alarmist" and a "one-sided takedown" that comes up short.^[14] Joyce's book sold well, debuting within a week of its publication at number 7 on The Sunday Times list of bestselling general hardbacks^[15] and continuing in the top 10 for a second week.^[16]

Twelve days after Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality was published, Joyce wrote at her website that she had been "subjected to a smear campaign. I knew I would be because that's what happens to anyone who publicly dissents from gender-identity ideology—the notion that what makes you a man or woman isn't your immutable biology, but what you declare yourself to be." In particular, she rejected accusations of anti-Semitism, saying that "the people accusing me of antisemitic dog-whistles are speculating about someone's religion, when I did not even speculate about it."^[17]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website