# Smoking and gender **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 28, 2003, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-gender/178052 "2003-05-28T16:47:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-gender/178052/1 "2003-05-28T16:47:50Z")
It’s the lunch hour here in the Eastern Standard Time zone. As I type this, our company secretery is out in the garage smoking a cigarette. It occurrs to me that most of the people I see smoking are women. Male smokers seem to be a definite minority. How does smoking break down by gender? What percentage of smokers are male, and what percentage are female? I’m mainly interested in the US, but global data (or even regional data within the US) would be interesting. And if there is a gender difference, what causes it? ---
**Author:** ![SnoopyFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@SnoopyFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnoopyFan)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-gender/178052/2 "2003-05-28T17:04:34Z")
This is just my uneducated guess … I would think that there would be more female smokers than male because women are generally more concerned about their weight, and smoking is a good deterrent to eating and it supposedly speeds up the metabolism a bit. ---
**Author:** ![McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McDeath_the_Mad)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-gender/178052/3 "2003-05-28T17:19:56Z")
I have to agree with **SnoopyFan**. I’ve asked a couple of female smokers and they said it was a “eating” deterrent. So is chemotherapy. It’s amazing the amount of teen female smokers compared to males. I think I heard it was 3-1, and males were more likely to quit. I’ll try and track some cites down. MtM ---
**Author:** ![McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McDeath_the_Mad)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-gender/178052/4 "2003-05-28T17:27:12Z")
Okay here is some info, from a Canadian government stop smoking website. Here is some 2002 survey data: [http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hecs-sesc/tobacco/research/ctums/2002/summary.html](http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hecs-s.../2002/summary.html) Here is the base URL if you are interested in any other info on the site: [http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hecs-sesc/tobacco/index.html](http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hecs-sesc/tobacco/index.html) MtM ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-gender/178052/5 "2003-05-28T17:41:03Z")
if you work in a “white collar” office, chances are that there are more women in the lower paying jobs (note your reference to the secretary). Smoking (cigarettes) tends to be skewed more to lower paying positions. As a whole, there are still more male smokers than women in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-gender/178052/6 "2003-05-30T16:02:26Z")
I smoke cigars. Cigars are too nice to waste on an at-work “smoke break”. So I don’t smoke at work. ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-gender/178052/7 "2003-05-30T17:10:57Z")
Hasn’t recent research shown the most worrying growth in smokers is young women? In this part of the world, it’s still considered “unseemly” for women in certain countries to smoke. But nearly all the men do. When women from more conservative families smoke, they hide it from their parents. By this I mean women in their twenties and even thirties, not underage teens.