Currently, there are many more women who smoke than ever. Those women perceive smoking as a symbol of independence, strong character, and power. Some smoke to relieve stress or survive grief and for some, it is just an old habit which they cannot give up. Whatever the reason is, the image of smoking businesswoman is familiar to everyone.
However, equally familiar is the knowledge that smoking is harmful — even lethal — for health. With this in mind, women are turning to vaping as a healthier alternative to cigarettes, or as part of their giving up smoking altogether.
Women smokers in history
This began at the dawn of the twentieth century, the era of the birth of consumer advertising. At this time, tobacco companies successfully sold cigarettes to men. Trade flourished, but manufacturers wanted to have even more profits. At that time there was in society a strict taboo on the smoking women and even worse if men see that. Naturally, women were a lucrative prey for tobacco tycoons — after all, this would double profits.
The president of one of the tobacco factories consulted famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud’s nephew, early marketing expert Edward Bernays. At one of the annual Easter parades in New York, where hundreds of thousands of believers gathered, Bernays played the whole show. He managed to persuade an entire group of girls from the local elite to play a prank. The girls hid cigarettes under their skirts, and when, on a specific signal, they joined the parade, the cigarettes were effectively extracted from under the dresses, and all the girls simultaneously lit up.
A few days before the parade, Bernays told journalists (as a great secret) that a group of activists, which is preparing a protest, would appear at the parade. He said that they would set fire to the ‘torches of freedom’. The plan was very successful. A whole bunch of reporters for the first time in history recorded free women who freely smoked these so-called ‘torches of freedom’.
The statistics
According to statistics, the highest smoking rate (27%) is among women aged 25 to 44 years. Under some reports, more than 250 million women are smoking around the world. In recent years, there has been a trend towards a decrease in smoking among women in developed countries, such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, but in other countries, it is still on the rise.
In terms of women vs men in take-up of using vape pens (get more information) and other vaping devices, men win. Making up about 88% of the vaping community, men dominate with e-cigs and flavored e-liquids. But women’s number will continue increasing as vaping becomes more popular. In fact, women may appreciate the benefits of vaporizer pen more than men do once they get to know the products available, especially since there are so many flavored and scented e-liquids that are designed to directly appeal to women.
The impact of advertising
The tobacco industry has a powerful impact on women’s smoking. Come into any tobacco shop, and you will see how big the range of so-called “women’s cigarettes” has become. Here you also have long cigarettes, thin, extra-thin, with menthol and other various aromatic fillers. The packs of cigarettes are also supposed to be a model of elegance and grace.
The ‘glamorous look’
Therefore advertising, works to convince women that the cigarette makes their image more “glamorous.” The glamor in our time is a terrible force, with which it is tough to compete for anti-nicotine propaganda. And today advertising is directed not even at cigarettes themselves but at the image they convey. In the heads of customers, smoking is love, friendship, elitism, sexuality, efficiency. For example, when “Virginia Slims” cigarettes appeared on the market, the advertisers decided to symbolically link smoking with the movement for the protection of women’s rights. There was the slogan: “You’ve come a long way, baby” — which directly referenced the burgeoning women’s rights movement while still tapping into the fashion. The propaganda is unambiguous: smoking will make you slim, smart, chic — and independent.
How to keep smoking without harm?
Even though every smoking woman has a right to the habit as personal choice, she would be sensible to think about the harm in cigarettes.
In 2017, the percentage of women smokers was about 10%. And this despite the fact that the world public health institutions have long been alarmed about the negative impact of smoking on the female body.
The vapor pen is being touted as an effective alternative to a pernicious habit, as evidenced by recent observations in the field (according to research by British scientists, vaping is 97% safer than conventional cigarettes).
