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.