Women, Low Income and Smoking Cigarette smoking is the single most important preventable cause of early death in women. It accounts for a third of all deaths in women aged 35 to 69. Over the last eighteen years there has been a decrease of 145 in the number of women who smoke in Scotland. Most smokers take up the habit during adolescence and are influenced to do so by several factors - peer pressure, parental smoking behaviour, advertising etc. In particular, girls are the target of advertising from the tobacco industry.
Smoking is portrayed as being necessary in order to acquire a slim, glamorous and successful image.
Research has shown that girls with low self esteem are more likely to take up smoking. Health education programmes in schools have not succeeded sufficiently in countering these beliefs. It is likely that a girl will continue to smoke if she is unemployed and has a low status job with a low income. A women on low income, who is bringing up young children, may recognize the health risks to herself and her family, but use smoking as a way of getting a break from pressure during each day. Spending money on cigarettes may be the only luxury of a woman who is on a severely restricted budget.