Betty Ford and Breast Cancer
Kevin Wonch
In the 1970s, the nature of how Americans perceived breast cancer changed. Instead of being a
taboo topic, as it was previously, people began to discuss breast cancer and its various impacts
openly. This is due in part to the role of First Lady Betty Ford, wife of President Gerald R. Ford,
who went public about her diagnosis of breast cancer in 1974. This project analyzes First Lady
Betty Ford’s 1974 public declaration of her breast cancer diagnosis and primary sources based on
its response from both the scientific and public community provides insight into how Ford
changed the relationship between the medical community and the public, and breast cancer
awareness as a whole. Ford helped the public realize that the way patients needed to interact with
doctors needed to change. She accomplished this through making the war on cancer an external
struggle on a personal level, rather than on a national level. Furthermore, evidence shows that
doctors, who were not connected intimately with the public, were not the ones to initiate that
change