But for the average woman at the turn of the century, smoking tobacco in public was totally taboo. Then came the Roaring Twenties. As skirts got shorter, American women grew more daring. They demanded and won the right to vote. And, they gradually asserted their right to enjoy tobacco. A 1926 Chesterfield ad portrayed a flapper wistfully asking her cigarette-smoking boyfriend to "Blow some my way." Within a few years, the American Tobacco Industry realized it was sitting on a gold mine and began marketing cigarettes directly to women. An ad campaign in the late 1920s pitched cigarettes to a figure-conscious female public with the slogan: "Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet." With the growth of the film industry in the 1930s and 1940s, and the ubiquitous use of tobacco by movie stars, public acceptance of women smoking cigarettes, at least, was secure.

Pushing the limit, Marlene Dietrich in the 30s, like George Sand before her, donned men's suits and seductively flaunted her cigars. Check her out in Touch of Evil where she quips to Orson Welles as cigar smoke encircles her face, "Future? You haven't got a future. It's all used up." It's likely that Dietrich first took up cigars in 1920s Berlin, where women's cigar-smoking clubs flourished. Cigar clubs back then served as both networking and social outlets for "progressive," ie, "renegade," women. Because cigars were still considered the property of men, female cigar clubs in the U.S. sprang up in secret.

Most of our grandmothers and great grandmothers smoked their cigars in private. Oral historian, Perucho Sanchez, described his experiences years ago in the cigar factories of Florida. Many women cigar rollers, he recalled, preferred cigars to cigarettes. But in order to smoke in peace, they would "take the cigars and cut them up. Then they would re-roll the tobacco in cigarette paper" and hold it all together with a hairpin.

With the advent of television in the 1960s, advertisers once again realized the profitable connection between women and cigars. For years, Muriel pitched its product with slinky, blonde Edie Adams, wife of cigar-smoking comedian Ernie Kovacs, while White Owl featured a women fresh out of the shower with an unlit White Owl miniature between her lips and a pack tucked under the back of her towel. 'If I were a man," she said, "I'd smoke White Owl Miniatures. If you are a man, take up with the small, trim, good-looking cigar that makes you look good." Why these women were not televised actually smoking can only be chalked up to gender bias. According to Professor Richard Klein of Cornell University, author of Cigarettes are Sublime, "Even today—a woman smoking a cigar [sends] a signal that she [has] assumed the male prerogative of taking pleasure in public."

Which brings us to the 1990s. Traditionally, Latin women cigar smokers have fared better than their American counterparts and that appears to hold true today as well. Because of the historic connections, Latin cultures seem to be more accepting of women cigar smokers. According to one Cuban woman, "I realize that seeing a woman with a cigar is not an entirely 'natural' thing for some Americans, but for many Cuban women, it's common." Women take openly to cigars in the Dominican Republic and Spain as well. Cigar smoking by women in Spain today is as much a part of the culture as bullfighting or flamenco dancing.

In the U.S., the times they are a changing. It’s not just movie stars like Jodie Foster, Whoopie Goldberg, Madonna, Bette Midler, or models Linda Evangelista and Lauren Hutton, who are smoking cigars today. Fully, 5% of all cigars sold in the United States are now sold to women smokers, up from .1% in the 1980s. By industry estimates 250,000 cigar smokers in the U.S. are women, and women comprise 400% of the retail dollars spent on cigars. The cigar industry is taking notice. Cigars and cigar accessories are marketed with the Cigar Woman audience in mind.

The cigar woman is the true cigar aficionada. She smokes for the relaxation and pleasure cigar smoking brings. She does not smoke cigars to be part of a "trend." The cigar woman is a strong, passionate, confident, ultra-successful woman. Unique and independent, with discriminating tastes, she lives life to the fullest.

Cigar Woman is dedicated to you.

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