Lunch Hour Lecture | How should we collect data on sex and gender identity?

Overview

In this lecture, Professor Alice Sullivan will share insights on data collection on sex and gender identity according to the Sullivan Review.

About the lecture

Since the 2010s, many organisations have ceased collecting data on sex. Why did data collection on sex become controversial? And why does it matter?

Professor Alice Sullivan will share insights on data collection, drawing on her expertise as a social scientist and her government-commissioned Independent review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender.

She will explain how data producers and public bodies can move forward by collecting data on both sex and transgender identities and not muddling the two.


About the speaker

Alice Sullivan is Professor of Sociology at the UCL Social Research Institute. Her research has spanned social, educational and health inequalities in the life course. She led the ‘Sullivan Review’ of data statistics and research on sex and gender, and is the author of ‘Sex, Lies and Statistics: Why We Need Evidence-Based Policy on Sex and Gender’ which will be published in November 2026.


About the chair

David Voas is Emeritus Professor of Social Science in the UCL Social Research Institute, which he led from 2016 to 2020. His research is mainly concerned with religious change in modern societies, based on quantitative analysis of large survey datasets.