A closer look
New York City completely outlawed women from smoking in public places in 1908 after a deeply sexist alderman decided that seeing a lady with a cigarette was a massive threat to the moral fabric of society. The Sullivan Ordinance was specifically designed to enforce Victorian gender roles, making it entirely legal for men to puff cigars everywhere while female smokers faced sudden arrest and public humiliation. The law was aggressively tested by an absolute icon named Katie Mulcahey, who intentionally lit up a cigarette right in front of a police officer and confidently told the judge that she had as much right to smoke as any man. She was fined five dollars, which she violently refused to pay, earning her a stint in jail but simultaneously turning her into a legendary pioneer for equal lung cancer rights. The incredibly unpopular ordinance was ultimately vetoed by the mayor just two weeks later, mostly because it made the entire city look entirely ridiculous
