The tobacco industry has very effectively used the recent feminist movement to market cigarettes to women, while simultaneously infusing the movement's advocacy groups with hundreds of thousands of dollars. The primary targets for tobacco industry money have been women's leadership and political groups, with the industry goal of political silence on women and tobacco issues to allow continued targeting of women by the tobacco industry.
Money from tobacco companies makes up as much as 10% of some nonprofit groups' annual funding.1-2 These groups include cancer advocacy organizations, ballet companies, art museums, facilities that offer services to battered women and children, among many others. In recent years, however, there has been more debate and discussion about the ethics of taking money from the tobacco industry, though many organizations continue to accept these funds because other sources of money have been reduced or have disappeared altogether.
1 The STAT Speaker's Guide & Slide Collection: Supplement II. 1994.
2 Bloch M. Women and Smoking. NCJW Journal. Spring 1997:25-27. |
