...we had to go up and be what was called ‘desensitized’... We had to go in to the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) office for two days and sit there while every term connected with sexual activities was told to us, because the project managers were concerned that when we all went out to do the interviews, we would come across all these sorts of things and we were not supposed to respond, obviously. We had to be separate from it. Do you remember that? Two days we were there. The interesting point was that at the end of that time, we were asked whether we wanted to continue to be put forward to do this survey at all, and loads of the men refused to take part. The male interviewers dropped out at that point; the women didn’t mind, but the men dropped out. Mrs Wendy Williams, History of the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles
Mrs Wendy Williams (b. 1941) completed a business studies course at college. After working initially for Barclays Bank, she did promotional work for a large international company. She later returned to education as a mature student, obtaining a BA (Hons) degree at the University of North East London in 1981, and several university diplomas (all in environmental sciences). She began working as an interviewer with NATSAL when it was inaugurated in 1969 and has continued to do so ever since.
