Historian’s new book smokes out the reasons women take up tobacco

(Ottawa Citizen) Women didn’t — and still don’t — take up smoking because they’re naive, ill-informed or duped by advertisers or peer pressure.
“Women take up smoking because it does a lot for them. It’s empowering to women,” says historian Sharon Anne Cook, distinguished professor at the University of Ottawa and the author of Sex, Lies and Cigarettes, a new book that traces the relationship between Canadian women, tobacco and popular culture from 1880 to 2000.
The relationship is a complex one. Continued