Women and Smoking in America, 1880-1950 Book

During the last 20 years of the 19th century, cigarette smoking was transformed from a lower-class habit to a favored form of tobacco use for men and practically the only form available to women. The trend continued to grow through the 1950s, when smoking was a significant part of America's social fabric for both men and women.

This social history traces the evolution of women's smoking in the United States from 1880 to 1950. It examines changing public perceptions from the late 1800s, when women were not allowed to smoke in public, to the late 1920s, when women's smoking was well established in venues from restaurants to college campuses. By 1928, advertisers began to target female smokers, and over the next two decades women smokers gradually gained equality with male smokers. The story is told in detail here, illustrated with film stills and ads of the period.