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Gender and Smoking Trend

Jamyang Choden

Sherubtse College, Kanglung

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Introduction

Cigarette smoking is one of the main leading causes of death across the globe. It is
estimated that approximately six million people die every year caused by smoking addiction.
According to the research finding it is found out that smoking harms every organ of our body
and makes individuals who smoke prone to life threatening diseases, including coronary heart
disease, lung cancer and emphysema. Despite people knowing the fact that smoking leads to
various diseases and most importantly death, people still engage in doing such stuffs. In fact
there are over billion numbers of smokers around the world, which is of a global concern.

It is usually the men who tend to smoke more compared to women and it is also seen that
men are most likely to get addicted when compared to women. But now with the change in time
even women smoker are coming out and are seen to be smoking at the same level as men’s do. It
is also found out that smoking rate among the women is seen to be prominently increasing in
huge number nowadays. From this we can see that the gender gap regarding smoking that has
been created by the society is starting to close in almost every region.

Though women tend to smoke there are restriction still made with regards to female
smoker but such restriction can differ from region to region. For example it is seen that mostly in
western countries there are less restriction as people living there are more developed and more
open minded compared to the other region like that of Asian countries and middle east countries.
Most of the Asian and middle-east countries tend to give more importance to their norms and
values and there are still stereotypical believe system that exist regarding what women should do
and be like.

Women in Asian regions they tend to smoke less compared to western women as the
Asian people have a lot of believe system and Asian are less of open minded when in
comparison to western countries. Though the concept of gender equality is gaining a lot of
populace nowadays, gender differences are still seen to be an issue that are seen to be existing
even in our present days as well. Nevertheless, compared to the olden days, the present
generation has less difference as people are open and also due to the globalization era.

There are various reasons on why people tend to smoke and some of the reasons are for
men, they smoke for reinforcing effects of nicotine, whereas women smoke to regulate mood or
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to maintain their idle figure. Though men smoke more compared to women, women are more
liable to smoking related morbidity and mortality.

Literature review

Cigarette smoking and its popularity among the people worldwide tend to disregard the
fact that it is one of the most dangerous cancer causing agents. However, smokers generally tend
to accept the fact that cigarette is harmful to their body and some users have also expressed that
they do not enjoy it [ CITATION Fid11 \l 1033 ]. In a study done by Shiffman and West, they have
found that smokers despite being aware of the fact that cigarette is harmful for their health
smokes a lot because the nicotine present in the cigarette tend to increase the urge to smoke and
makes the user undermine the ill effects of smoking cigarette [ CITATION Wes16 \l 1033 ]. Smoking
cigarette includes the act of drawing the cigarette stick into the mouth and the smoke gets inside
the lungs when the cigarette is burned [CITATION Wes16 \n \t \l 1033 ]. According to Critchley
and Unal, other than cigarette, smoking also includes pipes, cigar, cigarillos as well as so called
‘smokeless’ tobacco [CITATION Cri03 \n \t \l 1033 ]. Despite being such a hazardous substance to
consume, smoking has been a popular leisure activity as well as a lifestyle for many people
around the world.

In some of the studies, statistics have shown that, smoking is assumed to be the leading
cause of untimely death of approximately 6 million people around the globe and almost a 100
thousand in the United Kingdom alone [CITATION Act16 \n \t \l 1033 ]. Even for people who quit
smoking, their eventual death are caused by the smoking from their past years of smoking. For
people who do not stop smoking, they tend to lose more than 10 years of life on average from
smoking related diseases. Those who quits also suffers multiple diseases and organ failures soon
[ CITATION Jha14 \l 1033 ]. According to a study done by ASH, London, death caused by tobacco
are mainly from cancers like lung cancer, respiratory disease, heart diseases, and chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease [CITATION Act16 \n \t \l 1033 ]. Smoking is also classified as a
crucial risk factor for back pain, osteoporosis, and peripheral vascular diseases as well as
deafness, blindness and even stroke by US Department of Health and Human Services [CITATION
USD04 \n \t \l 1033 ]. In terms of prevalence, Eriksen and others have estimated the total number
of tobacco users to be at around 1 billion globally [ CITATION Eri13 \l 1033 ]. From a billion
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smoker, Growing and Ali projected that 30% of the smokers are men from the total world
population and 7% are women [CITATION Gro15 \n \t \l 1033 ].

During the early 19th century tobacco consumption was largely restricted among males,
but by the mid of 20th century the number increased, while for the case of females they remained
low. Buber et al. (2014) states that men had the highest level of smoking during the 1970s
mainly across the European nations. Gender gap in cigarette consumption has narrowed as of
fact that women as well started consuming cigarette and started to spread rapidly across by the
1920s. Though the consumption among males are still high, but some recent studies have shown
that there is a high proportion among women especially among the younger generations. One of
the prominent reason for the rise in the number of female smoker is due to the knowledge of
gender equality. On one hand with the absence of equality and disapproval of female smoking
lead to the increase number of female smoker whereas in the other hand it is said that with the
existent of gender equality, nowadays even females started smoking a lot like that of males.
Either way it encouraged women to smoke more. Another reason for the rise of female smoker is
due to their participation in workforce, which is an important characteristic of gender equality.
Since employed women’s are more independent and are also exposed to the world of men’s
lifestyle, they are able to move out of their stereotypical notions.

Moreover, they have access to money with which they are able to purchase cigarette by
themselves. Bauer et al. (2007) psychological review concludes that gender difference in tobacco
consumption are mainly due to different behavior. They were able to find out three main reason
which included, general characteristic of traditional sex roles, which lead to social pressure
against female smoking, so due to the traditional norms it created differences in personal
characteristics which lead to more or less acceptance of smoking. Sex role influences’ women to
compete within the surrounding to fit in so that they could achieve the idle figure that the media
portrays. In a study by Juhee, it was found that, both man as well as woman viewed smoking
among woman in a negative way. On the contradictory, men who smokes were often viewed in a
positive way and they were also described a masculine [ CITATION Woo12 \l 1033 ]. Studies done
in Asian countries have shown that there were huge crucial difference between female smoker
and male smokers. The prevalence of smoker also differed greatly with number of male smoker
being nine times higher than that of female smokers, in Asia [ CITATION Tsa08 \l 1033 ].
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References

Action on Smoking and Health. (2016). Smoking statistics: Who smokes and how much?

Retrieved from http://www.ash.org.uk/files/documents/ASH_106.pdf

Critchley, J., & Unal, B. (2003). Heslth effects associated with smokeless tobacco: A systematic

review. Thorax(58), 435-443.

Eriksen, M., Mackay, J., & Ross, H. (2013). The tobacco atlas. New York: American Cancer

Society.

Fidler, J., Shabah, L., & West, R. (2011). . Strength of urges to smoke as a measure of severity of

cigarette dependence: Comparison with the fagerström test for nicotine dependence and

its components. Addiction, 106, 631-638.

Growing, L. R., Ali, R. L., Allsop, S., Marsden, J., Turf, E. E., West, R., & Witton, J. (2015).

Global statistics on addictive behvaiours: 2014 status report. Addiction(110), 904-919.

Jha, P., & Peto, R. (2014). Global effects of smoking, of quitting, and of taxing tobacco. New

England Journal of Medicine(370), 60-68.

Tsai, Y.-W., Tzu-I, T., Chung-Lin, Y., & Ken, N. K. (2008). Gender Differences in Smoking

Behaviours in an Asian Population. Journal of Women's Health, 6, 971-978.

US Department of Health and Human Services. (2004). The health consequences of smoking a

report of the surgoen general. Atlanta: US Department of Health and Human Services,

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease

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West, R., & Shiffman, S. (2016). Smoking cessation (3rd ed.). Abingdon: Health Press.

Woo, J. (2012, December). Gender Differences in Cigarette Smoking: The Relationship Between

Social Perception of Cigarette Smokers and Smoking Prevalance. Minnesota: Minnesota

State University, Mankato.