Meet the new CEO of Endometriosis South Coast

Also, any sort of rudimentary background check (e.g. googling) on Steph would have warned of some PR concerns at the very least!

Dynamite! 🧨

@CriticalCondition Sadly it’s pretty common for people who are highly academic to be totally lacking in common sense!

Exactly. And while it would still have been an offensively stupid appointment, at least it wouldn't have been all Jodie's fault and would have given her some comeback to Emma's questions other than taking it very personally and getting upset.

Yes, the fact that the job offer came 'out of the blue, over a cup of coffee', seemingly without any requirement for interview, references, consultation with other trustees or discussion about terms and suitability for the role is a massive stain on ESC's reputation in itself.

I always assumed you had to have a reasonable level of intellectual ability to do a PhD.
Jodie's performance in that interview has caused me to review that.

There are any number of stupid and pointless PhDs. It depend on the topic and the agenda. I would think it is extremely dangerous to be doing a medical based PhD with a political agenda, to include and give equal weight to males in a disease that is almost exclusively centred around the female reproductive system. And then use the evidence of your own (possibly flawed) PhD to seek funding for your own charity.

Jodie said that she offered the role to Steph 'over coffee' and Steph said it came out of the blue.

So doesn't sound like there was any kind of process at all.

That was epic!

As a slight aside, this is why you need robust HR/hiring processes. Jodie was persuasive on why she needs a CEO to manage the day-to-day running of the charity. Is there a role profile/job description for that? Was it circulated as part of the recruitment process? Where did you advertise the vacancy? Who was on the shortlisting and interviewing panels? What set Steph apart from the other applicants (relevant experience, passion for the subject, transferable skills, etc.)?

That would at least have given Jodie a leg to stand on rather than saying she asked Steph if she wanted the job, based on having met Steph at an awards ceremony. But everyone who has ever been involved in the charity ever, including service users, all agree it's a brilliant appointment.

Look forward to seeing any Twitter updates later - wonder if Steph will claim to have dismantled Emma?

It's a vanity project. I just hope they don't divert funds away from other orgs genuinely trying to help women with endo, or confuse sufferers who need help, not trite, genderist activism.

I did find the paper on this. It's a vanishingly small number, but yes, 20 something men IN THE WORLD have suffered from this, in the penis, iirc.

same. I presume it's an automatic feature, but it makes live transcribing very difficult.

I mean she's doing a PhD, she's not stupid.

Sorry, my live transcribing fell away because I got 'rate limited' for posting too much. I highly recommend listening on catch-up, that was everything I could have hoped for.

Jodie is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, is she?

Also that discussion proves the whole bloody point about clear language, because it was impossible to tell for sure whether Jodie genuinely meant men. FFS. 🙄

iiuc Jodie rejects womanhood despite suffering from endometriosis so it will be important for Jodie to deny biology and insist that the condition isn’t gynaecological and it doesn’t overwhelmingly affect women who have wombs. Hence the tears on being confronted with reality. Awkward things, facts.

That PhD will be…..interesting.

Listening again, great line (abridged)

"With your campaigning history, of which there are records of it online... there is a concern that as a transactivist ... you will not preserve the importance of the word woman."

That's the question. I've seen people insist that men should be included in support groups etc about PCOS because there may be a vaguely similar condition suffered by a tiny number of males. And when I say vaguely, I mean vaguely.And I think...and? Set up support groups etc for that tiny group of men. What the hell has it got to do the women who have PCOS, a condition suffered by 1 in 5 women, which is criminally under-researched and poorly understood.

Scientifically, it's interesting to look into the reasons why endo like growths appear in men, in extremely rare cases. It may well help researchers understand more about how endo happens and how to treat it. But, that interesting scientific research area does not mean that endo charities need to mention or even centre the vanishingly few men who it affects. At all.

I would have no objection to a man taking a forward-facing role in the Endometriosis charity in order to promote the fact that Endometriosis has recently been discovered to affect males too, and publicising that particular niche patient demographic in order to speed up diagnosis and support the small (but potentially growing) number of sufferers. I would also have no objection at all in seeing a trans-man appointed to represent the trans and non-binary sufferers of the disease.

Steph's appointment is blatant trolling. Especially given that Steph doesn't appear to give much of a fuck about the job itself.

Editing to add: IF FUNDS ALLOW and can be allocated in proportion to demand.

Treatment for prostate cancer... isn't that also used as a puberty blocker? So another lovely disease to look forward to if you're an indoctrinated kid 👍

That was an amazing interview by Emma Barnett conducted impeccably. I think she'd planned in advance to trigger Richards to say "but what about the men?", ie the vanishingly small component of men who suffer from endometriosis so she could then respond with "you've just proved the point of the critics right, who say that it's not good to have a trans activist leading a charity for women".

I am really going to miss her when she leaves Woman's Hour.