In Conversation with NavyWomen’s Heidi Secker
The Navywomen Project
Heidi Secker
In 2017, it was the 100th anniversary of the Women’s Royal Naval Service. I don’t remember why, exactly but I decided to document a few stories of women who had served and post them to a dedicated social media page. The Navywomen Project was born but I didn’t have a particularly clear plan, just a rough idea and a willingness to do it.
When I started, I was fairly removed from the veterans community. I’d been in the Royal Navy but afterwards, I hadn’t felt an affinity with what I perceived to be a mostly male and older group of people. Post-navy, I’d focused on a new career, using my resettlement to train as a journalist and then on to radio as a producer and a presenter.
My first interviewee, Brenda Chapman, was a WW2 wren. Luckily, she was a thoroughly modern 91 year old and whilst she wasn’t on social, she had an iPad, used email and was very happy to be the guinea pig!
I work with women over a few interviews. During which, I explore a theme or particular experience with them. The interviews are transcribed and I edit and share in excerpt format, to social media. I usually take a portrait photo of each participant but as the project spread across the UK, we had to improvise with a zoom snap!
It wasn’t long before I understood what the Navywomen project needed to be. It’s a place where women can step into their pride and their accomplishments as a veteran. It was very obvious after a few interviews that this isn’t really something that the veteran community and wider society, always allows women to do.
The same points recurred. Women who felt they hadn’t ‘done anything’, women who felt unable to call themselves a ‘veteran’, women who felt unseen because male veterans did more, right? Some hadn’t accessed veteran specific support because they didn’t feel entitled to do so.
The gauntlet had been thrown down and I was ready. Today, I’ve interviewed over 30 female Royal Navy/WRNS veterans and a few who are still serving. It is an honour to be trusted with their experiences and to facilitate a moment for them in the spotlight. Participants can give their fears to me. The fear that no-one will want to hear what they have to say, the fear that no-one will read their story. The fear of taking up space. That space is ours and it’s our right to take it. It’s a pleasure to press ‘share’ on every single story that we post.
And people do want to hear what we have to say, they do want to read our stories. The Navywomen facebook page is over 2000 strong and it is not uncommon for posts to have hundreds of shares and viewing stats of 20,000 people or more. So by all means, please add yourself to that number, we’re at facebook.com/navywomen and instagram.com/navywomen
Editor’s Notes:
Heidi Secker served in the Royal Navy from 1994 - 2000. She was an Operator Mechanic, specialising in Electronic Warfare and based at sea on frigates. Heidi is now a broadcaster on Greatest Hits Radio and has been running the Navywomen Project since 2017.
Navywomen is on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NavyWomen
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/navywomen/