Tracing the Role of Gender in the History of Breast Cancer Social Movements

Breast cancer is a health issue of central importance as the most common cancer affecting Canadian women. One in nine women are diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetimes, an estimated 23,400 women in Canada will be diagnosed this year and 5,100 will die as a result (BCSC, 2011). While sex is the single risk factor for breast cancer that all women share, considerations of gender shift and change throughout time. Based on findings from a critical literature review, this article considers the continually evolving role of gender in the history of breast cancer social movements and the illness experience. It examines the historical context of breast cancer and disease regimes and the influence of the women’s and HIV/AIDS movements on the emergence of breast cancer as a site for collective action. The cultures of action which emerged in the 1990s helped shape the breast cancer social movement into one of the most popular and influential health social movements of the last twenty-five years