Australian Pap Smear Registers and the Creation of Gendered Identities

Abstract

Governments in several Australian jurisdictions have enacted legislation that creates cervical cancer registers. Unlike other legislation relating to several other types of health register, cervical cancer register legislation sets up oversight, reminder and information-gathering regimes about all patients who undergo testing for cervical cancer. The government sets up reminder systems and information-gathering from which women must opt out rather than opting in to use the system. This article examines cervical cancer register legislation and compares and contrasts legislative regimes that address comparative health regimes. Using textual analysis and a feminist theoretical model, the article examines how women are treated differently from patient groups comprising mainly men or mixed-gender groups. It then analyses how the legislation creates and reinforces gender identities.

When risk becomes illness: The personal and social consequences of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia medical surveillance

“…Most studies have focused on vaccination against HPV in Canada [32–35], the United States [36] and Australia [37]. Other studies explored how individual women deal with and react to information on cervical cancer risk in the context of cervical cancer screening in United Kingdom [38] and Australia's gendered approach to health care rights surrounding pap smear registration and testing [39]. Only one Canadian study [40] juxtaposed women’s experiences of precancer diagnosis and treatment with the decision to have the HPV vaccine, concluding that these women feel neither well nor sick, as they face a chronic infection that is very difficult to manage and that makes them feel at risk of developing cervical cancer.…”

Registering the Everyday: Documents, Bureaucracy, and the Socio-Legal

“…The birth certificate, for example, has formed the subject of analysis in relation to legal identity, gender, and kinship (Cooper and Renz, 2016). Similarly, the documentation of non-human material has been explored through a wide range of case studies including vehicles and license plates (Giddens, 2020), medical tests (Stagg-Taylor, 2013), zoo animals (Braverman, 2012), and land registration (Bhandar, 2018; Holder and McGillivray, 2020; Keenan, 2019). The papers which follow contribute an additional reflection on prison transfer forms, cosmetics, and crisis.…”