The Last Word: Why do girls smoke?

CrossCurrents

by Lorraine Greaves

Why do girls smoke? This is the most common question I get in my role as a women’s health researcher, advocate and president of the International Network of Women Against Tobacco. Indeed, it is an important question, not just here in Canada, but increasingly, around the world.

But trying to answer this question is not easy. No one really paid much attention to girls’ and women’s smoking (unless it was connected to a pregnancy) until the 1990s. Consequently, we have a dearth of research focusing on the effects, motivation and meaning of tobacco use for girls. We are still discovering that young female bodies respond differently to nicotine, and that the long-term health effects are different than those for males. Catching up on even basic biomedical and clinical research on girls and smoking is still underway.

Around the 1990s, however, smoking rates among young girls in Canada surpassed those of boys for the first time ever. This trend, which was similar in numerous industrialized countries, focused our collective attention. While rates are now more or less equal among young girls and boys, understanding why girls smoke is of critical importance in preventing and reducing girls’ tobacco use, both here and in the developing world.

Although overall smoking rates are declining in Canada, rates for young women under age 24 are higher than the average for all women. While girls and boys aged 15–17 now smoke at roughly the same rates, girls consume more cigarettes per day than boys, according to the 2006 Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey. Smoking rates among Aboriginal teens are even more disturbing. They are more than double the average, with Aboriginal girls more likely to smoke than Aboriginal boys. The results of the British Columbia Youth Survey on Smoking and Health published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health in 2004 found that Aboriginal girls also smoke earlier: They are more likely than boys to start smoking by age 11.

Myths abound about why girls smoke. One of the more irritating superficial explanations is that girls (and later, women) want to be like boys (and later, men). Hence, they take up smoking. Others suggest that smoking is a marker of equality; therefore it remains popular for girls and women. I have even been told that feminism causes smoking among girls. (I would hate to consider the cure for smoking if this were pursued!) Still others suggest that girls begin to smoke to control their weight or because they have low self-esteem or no self-confidence.

These explanations are about girls in relation to others, not about girls. Frankly, we do not know enough about what girls say about smoking, tobacco and its meanings to them. There is not enough written by girls about how smoking fits into their lives or even how it makes their lives better. Indeed, as smoking decreases overall in Canada, there is less and less space for even asking these questions and making room for the answers.

Smoking in Canada today is as a minority activity – stigmatized and increasingly marginalized through regulations, restrictions and attitudes. It’s hard to get a clear answer from girls, in this milieu, about the meaning of smoking. But it’s very important.

Girls smoke for a variety of reasons, many of which we as a society do not want to acknowledge. Without understanding how smoking helps girls connect with friends, maybe emulate their mothers, relieve boredom, offer a break from caregiving, facilitate rebellion, produce an image or provide solace, we will miss the mark in answering the question.

Smoking is also clearly associated with early trauma, experiences of sexual and physical abuse, poverty, early pregnancy, other substance use, lone motherhood, Aboriginal status, mental illness, homelessness and the bullying that is directed at gay and lesbian youth.

Smoking is both symbol and solace for girls, and later, for women. In order to fully grasp the essence of smoking among girls, we must first confront some wider societal issues such as gender inequity, homophobia, lack of income support and child care, prejudice and discrimination.

These are tall orders for those of us who are health providers, parents or teachers, who may think our part in this question is much more limited. However, with smoking at its lowest levels ever in Canada, and smoking rates among girls and boys becoming more similar as time goes by, the real question emerges: “How do we contribute to girls’ smoking?”

Answering this question would take us from the superficial to the deep, and away from a focus on girls who smoke to the rest of us. It may also show that reducing tobacco use among girls, ultimately, is a true pathway to liberation.

 

Lorraine Greaves is executive director of the British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health in Vancouver. She is co-editor with Nancy Poole of the newly released book Highs and Lows: Canadian Perspectives on Women’s Substance Use, published by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.

Editorials do not necessarily reflect the views of CAMH. We welcome submissions from our readers. For information, contact the Editor, CrossCurrents,33 Russell St., Toronto, Ontario M5S 2S1,tel 416 595-6714, e-mail hema_zbogar@camh.net

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