British women's smoking in the employers and managers socio-economic group

This paper extends the recent work of Graham and Hunt [(1994) Women's smoking and measures of women's socio-economic statu sin the United Kingdom. Health Promotion International, 9, 81-88] by replicating their 'alternative' approach to the measurement of women's socio-economic group (SEG) using more recent data-the General Household Survey (GHS) for 1990-and by examining in more detail some of the specificities of smoking amongst women in the employer/manager SEG. The paper concurs with many of the conclusions of their analysis, but with one significant exception. Whereas Graham and Hunt claim that there is 'limited evidence for a link between working conditions and smoking status' amongst women in employer/manager occupations, we demonstrate, to the contrary, that it is such differences that largely account for variations in the propensity to smoke amongst women in the SEG. We conclude that it is women working as employers and/or managers in small businesses who possess the greatest propensity to smoke amongst women in the SEG.