- 01/10/2024
- General
A Force for women
“To be our own force. Not the air force, or force of arms, or naval force. But the force of women. Through our words.”
When asked if I’d write about my work with the Writers Collective of Canada (WCC) and their Her Story workshop series, I found myself staring at a blank page. Where to begin? I took a literal page out of WCC’s method and gave myself the following prompt: “As a former military member and current WCC facilitator, what do I want to tell people about these workshops?” I set a timer for 12 minutes, picked up my pen and began to write. As usual, I was surprised by the story that unfolded on my page — the force of my own words, the release I felt in telling my story and the power of my own voice.
The Writers Collective of Canada is a charitable organization fostering community-based exploratory writing. Our unique workshop method invites participants to respond to prompts, share first-draft writing, practise deep listening and share feedback with others about what resonates in their writing. WCC workshops are led by trained volunteer facilitators, many of whom have lived experience that relates to the workshops they facilitate. The focus of the workshops is not on craft, critique or the final product — rather, it’s what unfolds during the process of writing together in community. In the fall of 2022, we launched Her Story, a series of workshops for women-identified Canadians who have served in the military. It was relaunched in October 2023 and I am excited to be serving as co-facilitator.
I remember how the Her Story workshops in 2022 quickly captivated me, on a personal level as a Veteran and professionally as a feminist academic. The writing and sharing of stories, whether fiction or memoir or anywhere in between, were treated as significant by the writers and listeners. While many wrote about their military experience, myself included, the prompts were thoughtfully chosen to encourage exploration of a wide range of themes. In sharing my stories, I felt protected and connected to a community of writers with common lived experience. When WCC approached me about supporting a relaunch of the series as a facilitator in 2023, I instantly agreed.
“To be our own force. Not the air force, or force of arms, or naval force.
But the force of women.
Through our words.”
— Nancy Taber, Canadian Armed Forces Veteran and Writers Collective of Canada facilitator
My military service trained me in stoicism and toughness. By never showing vulnerability, I learned to create a hard, protective shell around myself. The call for uniformity, conformity and hierarchy obscures and silences differences. But for those who look different, feel different and act differently from the military norm, that safety bubble you create is pierced from the very beginning. Even those who fit the norm — or who make themselves fit — can experience harm.
Finding space in the Her Story workshops to write about power, force, purpose, empathy, experience, identity, honour, leadership and heroism allowed me to reflect and reconceptualize my lived experience by writing and telling my story in all its complexity. Doing this alongside people who “get it” has left me with a new community where women’s stories are bravely shared and affirmed.
It was in a recent workshop that I wrote the opening line of this blog. While my time in the Forces is part of my story, it is the force of narrative that I think has such power for military women as we work through our own experiences together, learn from others, reclaim our own histories and reconsider how our past connect to our present.
Research demonstrates and lived experience validates that as much as women try to blend into military culture, more often than not we stand out. We are never just a military member, but always a woman military member. That qualification used to bother me. Now I embrace and honour the voice and story of my unique experience. When it taps me on the shoulder, I turn around, I listen and I (re)imagine what military culture could be.
— Nancy Taber
Nancy Taber, CD, PhD, is a professor at Brock University whose research explores the intersection of gender, militarism, and learning. She is a retired military officer who served as a Sea King helicopter Tactical Coordinator. Her debut novel, A Sea of Spectres, will be published in 2024 with Acorn Press.
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