Feminists fighting breast cancer: the personal and the political

Abstract

This article examines key feminist strategies for pursuing social change in relation to breast cancer. It begins with a brief overview of breast cancerrisk factors in the context of European statistics on breast cancer incidence and mortality. The central section, based primarily on my own focus group research, documents the commonality and diversity of women’s lived experience ofbreast cancer, considered within its social and political context. The article endswith a discussion of other forms of feminist activism, including campaigningfor improved services and resources, challenging the invisibility of womenwith breast cancer, and a political critique of the breast cancer ‘industry’.