Born: 1941, United Kingdom
Died: NA
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: NA
This biography is shared with permission from the Academics’ Wives project, created by Rosalind Edward and Val Gillies and supported by the British Academy / Leverhulme.
DOROTHY SINFIELD (1941 -)
Dorothy grew up in Watford, Hertfordshire, the daughter of parents who originated from pit villages near Durham. Dorothy met Adrian in 1963 when she was in the final year of her Social Studies degree at Newcastle University (then King’s College, Durham University). Adrian was carrying out research for Peter Townsend and Brian Abel-Smith on unemployment experiences of men in North Shields, and Dorothy’s class had been asked for help in accessing interviewees. Dorothy took this on as a fieldwork project and then interviewed some of the wives of Adrian’s research participants (for which Peter and Brian found extra money to pay her).
Dorothy married Adrian in 1964 and they moved to the US to undertake comparative research on unemployed men at the New York State Mental Health Research Unit in Syracuse. Dorothy did most of the interviews and they published a jointly-authored chapter on the study. Returning to the UK in 1965, they moved to Essex shortly before Dorothy gave birth to their first daughter. Adrian began as an assistant lecturer in the new University in Colchester. Dorothy had another daughter and looked after the children. In 1973, as soon as the children were a little older, Dorothy carried out a study of the experiences of postgraduate students at the University for Peter Townsend. She then undertook social survey training and became a regular interviewer for the General Household Survey as well as the census and other large surveys.
In 1979 Adrian, Dorothy and family moved to Edinburgh, where Adrian continued teaching and research. Dorothy carried on interviewing for the Social Survey before moving on to interviewing and analysis in academic and voluntary agency research In 1990 she and Adrian took on a study, Excluding Youth, on the impact of removal of benefits from young people. Dorothy carried out 30 in-depth over the course of a month. A Channel 4 documentary broadcast in 1991 made headline news in the national press.
Dorothy read, discussed and commented on all of Adrian’s drafts and redrafts while bringing up children and thereafter. She had an important and valuable influence on his thinking, research and publications.
An interview conducted with Dorothy and Adrian in 2022 can be accessed here.