Constructing Expertise: Inequality and the Consequences of Information-Seeking by Breast Cancer Patients

Abstract

The present study looks at women who joined breast cancer support groups to cope with the emotional fallout of the disease. Three support groups were studied, two composed of middle-class women, and one composed of working-class women. Data derive from 24 months of field observation and 35 in-depth interviews. Analysis shows how class-based inequalities led the women to seek therapeutic information about breast cancer in different ways. Women in the middle-class groups had the resources to gather and interpret information on their own, in effect becoming lay experts on the disease. Women in the working-class group lacked these resources, and thus collaborated in constructing their doctors as experts. These divergent strategies affected the women's illness experiences. Middle-class women interacted more assertively with their care providers and were more satisfied with treatment decisions. Working-class women, who were invested in trusting the expertise of their doctors, were subject to medical paternalism and pressured into making decisions that they later questioned.

Keywords

breast cancer support groups emotion social class

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