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Cited by 277Smoking Behavior and CessationGlobal Public Health Policies and EpidemiologyGender, Health, and Social Inequality

Women and tobacco: a call for including gender in tobacco control research, policy and practice

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Amos, Amanda, Greaves, Lorraine, Nichter, Mimi, Bloch, Michele·2012·Tobacco Control
DOI 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2011-050280
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Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Female smoking is predicted to double between 2005 and 2025. There have been numerous calls for action on women's tobacco use over the past two decades. In the present work, evidence about female tobacco use, progress, challenges and ways forward for developing gendered tobacco control is reviewed. METHODS: Literature on girls, women and tobacco was reviewed to identify trends and determinants of tobacco use and exposure, the application of gender analysis, tobacco marketing, the impact of tobacco control on girls and women and ways to address these issues particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. RESULTS: Global female tobacco use is increasingly complex, involving diverse products and factors including tobacco marketing, globalisation and changes in women's status. In high-income countries female smoking is declining but is increasingly concentrated among disadvantaged women. In low-income and middle-income countries the pattern is more complex; in several regions the gap between girls' and boys' smoking is narrow. Gendered analyses and approaches to tobacco control are uncommon, especially in low-income and middle-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Tobacco control has remained largely gender blind, with little recognition of the importance of understanding the context and challenges of girl's and women's smoking and secondhand smoke exposure. There has been little integration of gender considerations in research, policy and programmes. The present work makes a case for gender and diversity analyses in tobacco control to reflect and identify intersecting factors affecting women's tobacco use. This will help animate the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control's concern for gender specificity and women's leadership, and reduce the impact of tobacco on women.

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Authors
Amos, A., Greaves, L., Nichter, M., & Bloch, M.
Affiliations
  • University of Edinburgh (GB)
  • University of British Columbia (CA)
  • University of Arizona (US)
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
Corresponding author
Amos, Amanda
ORCID
Venue
Tobacco Control
Publisher
BMJ
Published
2011-12-13
Volume
21
Issue
2
Pages
236-243
ISSN
  • 0964-4563 (ISSN-L)
  • 1468-3318
DOI
10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2011-050280
OpenAlex
W2145034529
Cited by
277
References
1
Citations by year
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FWCI
1.63
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Tobacco Control (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • United Kingdom Clinical Research Collaboration
  • Cancer Research UK
  • British Heart Foundation
  • Medical Research Council
  • Economic and Social Research Council
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Gender, Health, and Social Inequality
Keywords
women's smoking, gender analysis, tobacco control, passive smoking, tobacco marketing, low- and middle-income countries, Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, intersectionality, women's status, disadvantaged women
MeSH terms
Smoking Prevention, Female, Humans, Male, Sex Factors, Smoking, Tobacco Smoke Pollution, Women's Health, Smoking Cessation, Biomedical Research, Marketing

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