That Woman

In 1988, Silvia Cartwright published what would become a landmark report, the Cervical Cancer Inquiry, into medical malpractice against cervical cancer patients. While many praised the investigation, some in the medical fraternity dismissed it as a feminist witch-hunt and rallied behind the professor whose research was denounced.

The controversy spilled beyond lecture theatres and hospital corridors. One day, a social worker at Auckland Hospital walked into a doctor's office to discover him reading a newspaper article about the inquiry. The doctor dropped it on his desk, snarling, 'That woman!' only to be told that the woman in question was the sister of the social worker standing before him.

From being one of only two women studying law in the 1960s at Otago University to becoming New Zealand's first female High Court Judge and its second female Governor-General, Silvia Cartwright's unparalleled career charts a profound shift in Aotearoa's legal and social history. She recalls the indignities—being ignored by male peers, struggling to gain employment as a lawyer paid at the same rate as her male colleagues, and even receiving a note from a judge instructing her to lengthen her skirt. But also, the highs—including the Cartwright Inquiry, which helped transform women's healthcare, her sometimes controversial years as a High Court Judge and Governor-General, her work internationally, and her gruelling but fascinating work judging war crimes in Cambodia.

Written with warmth, candour and sharp humour, and weaving both personal story and national history, That Woman is a wonderful account of how far women have come—and how far there is still to go.