From Provision of Information, Through Activation, to Changing the Social World. The Amazonki Associations as a Source of Comprehensive Support for Women with Breast Cancer

Edyta Zierkiewicz

doi:10.18778/2450-4491.09.05

Authors

Edyta Zierkiewicz Institute of Pedagogy, University of Wroclaw https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0312-874X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2450-4491.09.05

Keywords:

social support, support group, breast cancer, women's social movement, Associations of “Amazons”, Poland

Abstract

This work presents the phenomenon of mutual help and social support in a group of patients with breast cancer, against the background of transformations of the whole Amazonki (Amazons) movement. Social organizations embracing women after breast cancer treatment have been operating in Poland for over 30 years. In that time, they have proven their usefulness and importance. Since the beginning of their existence, the Amazons clubs were oriented to providing support, widely understood, to women patients in oncological wards and club members; they have been successful in that area so far. What is important is the fact that individual clubs of women after cancer treatment are not separate social units, but form a federation which, since the early 1990s, has been directing the process of rationalizing their operations. This work describes that process in general and presents the stage at which the Amazons movement is at present. What is interesting, the stagnation which has overcome the whole movement seems to have little or no effect at all on the functioning of separate associations, which pursue their statutory goal to support sick women in recovery and improve their quality of life.

Author Biography

Edyta Zierkiewicz, Institute of Pedagogy, University of Wroclaw

Zierkiewicz, Edyta – doctor habilitatus, Professor at the University of Wrocław, where she works in the Department of Counselling Studies in the Institute of Pedagogy. Her main interests focus on issues of professional and unprofessional counselling (including self-help books and women’s magazines), and on issues of cultural discourses on breast cancer.

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