Media commentator Jane Caro compares the profession of prostitution to being a housewife on Q&A. Courtesy ABC/Q&A

UPDATE: Australian author Jane Caro has defended herself against criticism surrounding the “abstract comparison” of women and housewives as prostitutes.

The all female panel on last night’s Q&A program covered a range of feminist topics, including women’s role at war, raising boys minus masculinity and the pitfalls of single parenthood. Ms Caro was praised for her articulate arguments.

“I stand by my analogy, particularly when there was no such thing as rape in marriage,” Ms Caro told news.com.au this morning.

“We really trapped women economically and legally in marriage and they had no control over their body.

“I’m making an analogy that for a very long time — not now thank goodness — that women’s major currency was sexual favours.

“Read (Jane) Austen — it’s all about finding a rich husband, Hello? That’s my point.

“It’s an analogy and it was after all, it was the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. I thought I’d throw a bit of fireworks out there and get people talking, that’s what happened.”

It was a question surrounding career choice prostitution, off the back of former journalist Amanda Goff’s recent revelations, that has drawn chatter by the water cooler this morning.

Promoting her book, Hooked — Secrets of a High-Class Escort, on Seven’s Sunday Night program Goff explained how boredom at work led to her transition from a divorced mum to a highly paid escort.

“I just decided to charge for something that I was doing for free anyway,” she told interviewer James Thomas.

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It was a titillating topic, one that would be undoubtedly covered on a Q&A full of femininity, and just like clockwork, Diana Mbaka asked:

“Former journalist Amanda Goff recently revealed that she chose a career in prostitution and stated: ‘Nobody is taking advantage of me anymore. I’m going to become empowered’. What are your thoughts on prostitution as a conscious career choice in a first-world country?”

Cue Ms Caro, who launched into an odd monologue claiming women — married women in particular — engage in forms of prostitution.

“I’m going to say something really dangerous now,” she began.

“When you have a society where women’s main currency is really their sexual favours, their ability to reproduce, then a lot of what women do is a form of prostitution,” she began.

She then proclaimed that traditional marriage was the backbone of prostitution, where women in powerless positions, like unemployment, were forced to sell their reproductive rights to their husbands.

“I would argue that traditional marriage, which included conjugal rights, particularly when women were not able to go to work or were fired when they first got married, and were basically selling their bodies and their reproductive rights to their husband, he bought them, by giving her room and board in return, was a form of prostitution.

“We really have to discuss what we mean by prostitution. At least the women who choose it as a career choice, freely and uncoerced — that's very, very important — only have to put up with the customer for about an hour.

“Once upon a time, it was a lifetime ladies, a lifetime.”

But it was Swedish author Kajsa Ekman who breathed a dose of reality into the discussion, dismissing Ms Caro’s comparison as “abstract”.

“We’re talking here about a world in which a lot of people in prostitution have sex with up to 15 buyers a day,” she replied.

“I think that journalist might soon realise it wasn't really that empowering, and that it is not representative of the majority of people who enter prostitution.

“They don't have a background in journalism. Sorry.”

Well were these ideas dangerous? No. Were they well worn. Yes. #qanda nearly over. @JaneCaro last dismissive ref to prostitution abysmal — Will Camphin (@WillCamphin) September 1, 2014

.@JaneCaro implies marriage is a form of prostitution! Stupid & immoral comment. Good marriages are the most important social structure. — Bina Ry (@binary9999) September 1, 2014

Wait, what @JaneCaro? You're saying my grandmother was a prostitute? #qanda — Dan Fraser (@FraserDan11) September 1, 2014