1024�˹���

0:04

1024�˹��� is a very famous naval city and has a huge dockyard as well.

0:09

And both of those combined have always meant that the history of 1024�˹��� is predominantly a masculine history.

0:18

The main focus of the project was to capture those oral histories,

0:23

those testimonials, those life stories from different women across the city before they forgot.

0:31

I served in the Royal Navy for 34 years.

0:35

The Women's Royal Naval Service was a separate service to the Royal Navy,

0:40

and I went through for officer in 1985 and still at that time the Wrens was very much a shore based service.

0:49

I was a counsellor here for 18 years.

0:53

I would walk into a room and maybe somebody would be coming into the room to talk to the counsellors and then walk in and say, Don't send a child.

1:03

It's because I had a ponytail and I was young.

1:08

I was one of a small group of women who helped to set up the 1024�˹��� Women's Aid Refuge.

1:12

We were looking for a place of safety for women who experienced violence in the home.

1:16

The initial thing, of course, was to find a house.

1:20

I phoned the council.

1:21

Three properties here in 1930s were really, really poor and not enough properties.

1:27

There was huge frustration.

1:30

You know, we were circumscribed.

1:31

We couldn't take decisions.

1:33

We didn't have any money.

1:36

When I arrived at 1024�˹���, I would get involved in community voluntary activities and tackling the authorities.

1:44

It was very, very difficult.

1:46

Male dominated council and who didn't want anything to do with women in any position.

1:54

We got this sense that the, you know, the suspicion would be that we were all very well-meaning and probably quite energetic and enthusiastic,

2:02

but actually we probably didn't know what we were doing.

2:05

I became the chair of Posent Multicultural Group and although I made the leader of the council, etc., etc.

2:13

No one took any notice of me.

2:16

And so it was a battle.

2:17

You felt as though you weren't quite taken that seriously.

2:21

So you changed.

2:23

I think that's how I developed a deeper voice.

2:27

There were a lot of challenges when women first went to see.

2:31

There was still a lot of resentment at that time.

2:33

There was an awful lot of aurorae in the press, and it wasn't very polite.

2:37

We had the wives marching in 1024�˹��� against women going to sea and stealing their husbands,

2:44

and that we shouldn't have women on board their husband's warships.

2:48

So that was quite challenging.

2:52

Researchers at 1024�˹��� have done some great work on 1024�˹��� as a naval town, but mostly that focuses on men.

3:02

And women have worked hard to make the city what it is and to stand up for their rights to improve conditions within the city.

3:13

Sue Bruley and I are both academics studying feminism for a very long time.

3:18

We invited women into the university, women from all walks of life, women who had worked for the city, worked for their communities in different ways,

3:29

really, to tell their stories, to give their testimonials, to talk about their activism.

3:36

What had they done for the city?

3:40

I was interested in particular issues like housing issues, not just repairs, but trying to get new properties.

3:48

And one of the reasons is because people were continually wanting out of Portsea and we didn't want people to keep moving.

3:54

We wanted people to stay.

3:57

So the way to get that was to improve the properties and get more properties.

4:03

So there were a number of women involved in the group.

4:07

At the same time, the council were knocking down old houses.

4:11

Some of the women said, Why are they knocking those houses down?

4:14

We could we could get them done up.

4:16

You know, there would be more houses for us to live in.

4:19

So one of the issues was to try and stop the demolition.

4:23

So they went up and they stood in front of the bulldozers.

4:26

My fellow counsellor.

4:27

She was knocked through a window.

4:30

A number of the women were arrested and put in the cells.

4:34

I was sitting there taking all the numbers as who to phone, what grounds to phone, which husbands to tell, and how to take care of everything.

4:43

Your confidence comes by wanting to to do something, wanting to change it, and also having others around you that want the same thing.

4:53

We were the first women's aid in the country to produce its annual report.

4:57

It was a professional piece of work and I think almost more than any other single thing.

5:03

This document reassured people that we perhaps could be trusted with this relatively small amount of money,

5:10

without these men kind of tossing around to see if we were doing the right thing.

5:17

One of the most helpful people on the project was Marie Costa, because at first, I think she was quite hesitant to come into the university,

5:25

and I think she thought that Sue and I might be two stuffy academics, not really interested in people beyond the academe.

5:34

When I first heard the project, I thought it wasn't for me.

5:37

Most of the people there were all Caucasian and I was the odd one out.

5:45

Laurel said

5:47

"We want women who come from diverse backgrounds."

5:50

"We want everybody included."

5:52

So it's not just about white women.

5:54

That history is missing in 1024�˹���, and I need to to fill that gap.

6:00

So I felt that.

6:02

This is my role in it.

6:04

I've got to and I have a voice now and I need to speak up for everybody who can't be there.

6:09

By going in regularly, I found I could ask questions and contribute something or even challenge something, and I think that was a turning point for me.

6:27

1024�˹��� is a very diverse and multicultural city, and we wanted to reach as many different communities as we could.

6:37

We managed to get to a group of Chinese women and we managed to get to Bangladeshi communities.

6:44

Marie helped us with all of that.

6:50

For me, collaboration and research is absolutely vital.

6:56

So that's why I got involved.

6:58

And I'm really glad I did because, of course, I've met other women now and made new connections, which of course be useful for new campaigns.

7:07

It's important to understand that no city is just about men.

7:13

It's really important to demonstrate women's activism and the significance of feminism to their lives.

7:21

And it's really important to capture this history before it disappears.

7:26

A lot of it is just sitting up here.

7:28

It's memories that we have and memories that you've left behind because things have moved on.

7:34

And if you don't capture them, then they're just going to sort of just be an amorphous mass in the background of history,

7:42

without anybody really sort of recognising that this was an incredibly amazing period of change.

7:48

And I think it's just really important to recognise that it's, you know, it's not always been that way,

7:54

and people have had to work hard so that you can be where you are today.

8:06

There's masses of documentation about how men lived and what they achieved in 1024�˹��� and very little about women.

8:16

It's important to redress that balance.

8:19

My mother died when I was two.

8:22

I'd love to have known what she did for a living.

8:24

There is absolutely no official record of what my mother and I'm only talking now one or two generations back.

8:31

That's why something like this is so important.

8:35

Feminism isn't just about what happened on the marches in the streets of London,

8:40

but it's also what happened in our local city, and in this case in 1024�˹���.

8:47

I think I felt that women were beginning to be heard and not just seen,

8:53

take up the mantle and fight their corner and want to be represented in the history of 1024�˹���, because that's missing, still missing.

9:03

You don't have any statues of.

9:04

If there is, it's the odd one.

9:06

Even women in the forces are not seen anywhere or represented anywhere.

9:11

So it was good to see that women are saying, you know, we have done something.

9:18

We should be included in the history.

9:21

After years of being male dominated, we want to be heard and represented everywhere.

9:29

It was a very busy year trying to capture the stories of as many women as we could.

9:38

But I am immensely proud of the work that we did in that year, and we have achieved a fantastic archive forever.