Betty Ford first worked as a dancer, studying with Martha Graham in New York before returning to Michigan, where she taught dance and worked as a department-store fashion coordinator. After marrying Gerald Ford in 1948, she undertook the public duties of a congressional spouse. His appointment as vice president in 1973 and accession to the presidency in August 1974 brought her into a national role.

As first lady from 1974 to 1977, she spoke openly on subjects often treated as private or politically dangerous. Following a mastectomy in September 1974, she publicly discussed her breast cancer diagnosis. The response brought attention to screening and encouraged women to seek examinations and treatment. She also acknowledged receiving psychiatric counselling, helping challenge the embarrassment associated with mental-health care.

Ford actively supported the Equal Rights Amendment and defended women's freedom to choose employment, homemaking and their own family arrangements. She supported abortion rights, urged consideration of women for senior government appointments, and promoted the arts. Her 1975 television interview on 60 Minutes, which addressed sexual behaviour and other contentious subjects, provoked criticism as well as widespread approval. Her positions sometimes unsettled conservative Republicans, but she maintained an independent public voice while campaigning for her husband in 1976.

After leaving the White House, she entered treatment in 1978 for dependence on alcohol and prescription medication following a family intervention. She described that experience publicly and made addiction treatment the centre of her later work. In 1982 she co-founded the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California, and helped direct its development. The centre supported patients and families, with attention to women's needs. Her advocacy earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, extending her public influence well beyond the presidency.