Sir Roger Jowell Memorial Lecture 2022

This year’s annual lecture in memory of European Social Survey (ESS) co-founder, Sir Roger Jowell, will be delivered by Professor Rosie Campbell on Wednesday 12 October.

The lecture – Exposing the gender gap: why women voters will decide the next election – will be held in-person at City, University of London (UK) and broadcast online from 6.30pm (BST).

It will focus on how a greater proportion of women voted for the Conservative party than men in almost every UK General Election from 1945 until 2015.

This trend reversed in 2017, and again in 2019, when a greater proportion of men voted for the Conservatives, and a greater proportion of women backed the Labour Party.

Rosie Campbell (King’s College London) will reflect on the historic trends that have generated this gender gap and consider why it has reversed.

The lecture will underline the invaluable contribution that the British Social Attitudes survey and British Election Study have made to the ability to understand the link between gender and voting behaviour – both surveys that Sir Roger played a leading role in establishing.

Campbell will also explore the role gender might play in future UK elections and ask why the issue is not receiving more attention from academics, the media and politicians themselves.

The lecture will be followed with a Q&A session, chaired by Alison Park, Economic and Social Research Council. A drinks reception will be held afterwards.

The event has been organised by City, University of London, NatCen Social Research and the Social Research Association.

There are two registration forms included on the event listing: a Qualtrics form for in-person attendees and a Zoom Webinar form for online access.

Professor Rosie Campbell is professor of politics and director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London.

Professor Alison Park is the Interim Executive Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), having joined as Director of Research in January 2019.

Sir Roger Jowell CBE (26 March 1942 – 25 December 2011) was an outstanding British social statistician and academic.

He founded Social and Community Planning Research (SCPR) – now NatCen Social Research – and was at the forefront of implementing British Social Attitudes and the British Election Study

Sir Roger also made a major contribution to the development of robust comparative research through the International Social Survey Programme and the ESS.

Register to attend Exposing the gender gap: why women voters will decide the next election