Although its very mention is often met with a snigger in more high-brow circles, Women’s Era is a force to contend with. It may feature consistently hideous covers and painfully earnest stories about how to air your woollens, but somehow, it speaks to a lot of Indian women and has managed to strike a long-lasting chord with them.
*Kitty Party on paper
It is no secret that Women’s Era has managed to maintain its cosy “ladies’ club” tone over the years even though it is now trying to be a little more youthful—for example, the January ’07 issue’s alarming theme was ‘zindagi rocks’. Other constants include low-quality, home-style photographs of hirsute babies and tacky flower arrangements accompanied by stilted but friendly articles featuring some very questionable grammar and language. However, it is all too easy to pick this magazine apart: it is more important to analyze why it works.
*Junta Mantra
No other English-language woman’s magazine in the country has paralleled Woman’s Era intimate relationship with its readers-in fact, its identity is so well established that the cover needs nothing other than the badly made-up model dressed in a fashion atrocity. Housewives, armed with the Great Indian Recipe or the Great Indian Anecdote, know just where they should turn for validation and publication. Readers are beseeched to share their experiences on every third page and invited to enter all types of contests-the photographs of winners are also published, further cementing the bond between the magazine and its audience. Women’s Era is really willing to push all limits: it even publishes shudder-worthy poetry sent in by bored moms. The staff is brave.
In addition, the magazine regularly features sentimental stories about saving souring marriages and friendships, advice columns, articles on childcare, “me-time”, beauty and even celebrity profiles. Yet, despite the quality of the articles and stories(although some are really not too bad), or perhaps because of it, Woman’s Era has succeeded in connecting with its readers at a level that most other magazines have not. Unlike the majority of other publications of its kind, WE is not into blatant product placement and inspires few consumerist anxieties—the advertisements are mostly for drabber home appliances and cockroach zappers and the beauty advice is more besan *and *malai than Clinique or Estee Lauder.
What also makes Woman’s Era attractive to a variety of women is its extensive cookery section—the recipes are look as if they’ve been tested in-house(a rarity) and all ingredients are readily available locally. While items such as "tricoloured cheese cake" for Republic Day may induce considerable nausea in some, to others they represent the zenith of creativity.