An Intersectionality-Based Framework for Tobacco Control

Abstract

While Pederson et al. (Health Promotion International, 30(1): 140–150, 2014) propose a framework for gender-transformative health promotion to address tobacco control, this chapter proposes an intersectionality-based framework for health promotion and tobacco control. This approach offers a more nuanced understanding of health promotion and tobacco control precisely because it does not consider gender as an independent category. Gender cannot exist as an independent category and always intersects with ‘race’, ethnicity, culture, sexuality, and class (Phoenix and Pattynama, European Journal of Women’s Studies, 13: 3, 2006). This chapter argues that public health research and policy on cigarette smoking and tobacco control must acknowledge the social and cultural context of cigarette smoking in order to develop relevant and appropriate public health programmes and policies.

First, this chapter reviews the literature on young people and cigarette smoking, focusing specifically on the gaps in the literature and the absence of research studies on African-Caribbean young women and cigarette smoking in the UK. The author then presents a summary of her research study which uses Cole’s (American Psychologist, 64: 170–180, 2009) questions in developing an intersectional research methodology. Finally, this chapter argues that an intersectionality-informed research evidence base is necessary to develop an intersectionality-based framework for tobacco control policies relevant to global tobacco use in the twenty-first century.