Long before its harmful effects were known, smoking was taboo for women because of its strong association with men’s command of the public sphere. A new Center for Women’s History installation in the Joyce B. Cowin Women’s History Niche explores how women’s smoking represented the breakdown of gender barriers in the early 20th century. This changed in the 1910s when feminized cigarettes were marketed directly to women. By the 1920s, women’s smoking was popularized by depictions of fashionable flappers. Yet, smoking also maintained its association with liberation from constrictive gender norms, and in combination with menswear elements such as top hats, monocles, and tailcoats, smoking became part of a coded queer attire adopted by middle-class and elite women.

Lighting Up at the Met Gala

Image: Eugene Robert Richee (1896-1972) Marlene Dietrich in a publicity photo for the film Morocco, 1930

Kinemathek - Marlene Dietrich Collection Berlin/ Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery