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Objectives Female smoking is predicted to double between 2005 and 2025. There have been numerous calls for action on women's tobacco use over the past two decades. In the present work, evidence about female tobacco use, progress, challenges and ways forward for developing gendered tobacco control is reviewed. Methods Literature on girls, women and tobacco was reviewed to identify trends and determinants of tobacco use and exposure, the application of gender analysis, tobacco marketing, the impact of tobacco control on girls and women and ways to address these issues particularly in low-income and middle-income countries.

This article presents findings from a qualitative study of 53 low-income women who were smokers at the onset of pregnancy. Study participants were interviewed during pregnancy to document smoking trajectories and factors contributing to, or undermining, harm reduction and quit attempts. Thirty percent of women quit smoking completely, 43% engaged in sustained harm reduction, and 26% reduced their smoking levels intermittently. Case studies of women are presented to illustrate reasons for quitting, harm reduction practices, and factors influencing relapse and smoking continuation. Women's motivations to quit are highlighted. Moral identity as a mother was found to be a key motivating factor behind women's quit attempts. Future programs targeting this population would do well to acknowledge moral identity as an issue and recognize the challenges of quitting for women with limited social support and little control over their immediate environment.

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Background: Tobacco advertising in Indonesia is among the most aggressive and innovative in the world, and tobacco advertisements saturate the environment. Tobacco companies are politically and financially powerful in the country because they are one of the largest sources of government revenue. As a result, there are few restrictions on tobacco marketing and advertising. National surveys reveal that 62% of men and 1% to 3% of women are smokers.

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Smoking prevention and cessation programmes need to address and counter the smoking/relaxation association, which was identified as an important reason for smoking among adolescent girls. Questions typically used in surveys to measure smoking behaviour do not adequately define the smoking experience as described by teenagers.

Ethnographic research, including interviews, focus groups, and observations were conducted to explore gendered dimensions of smoking among low level smokers, including the acceptability of smoking in different contexts; reasons for smoking; the monitoring of self and friends’ smoking; and shared smoking as a means of communicating concern and empathy. Important gendered dimensions of smoking were documented. Although males who smoked were described as looking manly, relaxed, and in control, among females, smoking was considered a behavior that made one look slutty and out of control. Young women were found to monitor their own and their friends’ smoking carefully and tended to smoke in groups to mitigate negative perceptions of smoking. Gender-specific tobacco cessation programs are warranted on college campuses.