Home > Author > Shoma A. Chatterji
1 " Is it not ironical that the commercial market economy has a financially valued analogy for every item of housework a homemaker does on a daily basis without payment? Restaurant meals provide the parallel for preparing, cooking and serving food. Laundering services provide the analogy for washing and ironing. Housecleaning can be done professionally by professional housekeepers and domestic maids. Crèches, play-houses and baby sitters can take care of small children. These services need to be paid for and thus they are computed while measuring the GNP. But a homemaker provides all these services for free, so her services are kept out of evaluation and measurement of GNP. "
― Shoma A. Chatterji , The Female Gaze: Essays on Gender, Society and Media
2 " Millions of Indian housewives remain silent about the complete lack of sex in their marriage after the first child is born. Most husbands—modern, urban, educated, young, successful and independent—forget that their wives need sexual fulfilment as much as they do. "
3 " Few have cared to appreciate that the job of a switchboard operator demanded a high level of communication skills and an exceptional grip over the English language, besides decent telephone manners. This is a major reason why switchboard operating was one of the first careers completely dominated by women. Yet, the lady telephone operator has been parodied, often in bad taste, in the media, in films and on television soaps. One important reason why women were preferred is because they talked in soft tones, sometimes in whispers and had excellent telephone manners. This has been a trait injected into the female of the species almost from the time she learns how to speak. Imposing silence on women is one of the most invisible forms of violence perpetrated on girls and women across the world. "
