Interview with Linda, 18-19, working class, Protestant. Women, Risk and AIDS Project, London, 1990. Anonymised version including field notes. (Ref: LJH38)

This interview is part of the Women, Risk and Aids Project (1989-90) archive which was created as part of the Reanimating Data Project (2018-20).Anonymised transcript of an interview with Linda, who is working in a secretarial role. She would like to earn enough to be independent and would like to progress in her career - she'd hate to be some man's secretary forever. Linda is very aware of 'everyday' sexism that takes place both in her workplace and out in public, especially after being sexually harassed in a high street store, in a cinema and on the tube. She is having a sexual relationship with her current partner and they are using the pill as their main method of contraception. Her sex education mainly came from books that her mum had bought for her - her co-ed school didn't offer any sex education for girls, unless they happened to take biology. AIDS education was through her dad's copies of New Scientist magazine. Linda has some guilt about her religious values that she has found it difficult to uphold, particularly the idea of 'no sex before marriage'. She thinks growing up as an only child has impacted her identity within relationships, and describes herself as stubborn and fiery.