The published work is an attempt to investigate the cause of poor representation of Women in State Legislative Assembly. The book also analyze the behavior of Women legislators, in the framework of State Political System. Finally it presents the remedial approach to increase Women participation and corrective behavior needed to sustain positions in Legislative Assembly.

Dr. Pragya Rai -Born in 1980 in Varanasi- Uttar Pradesh, the author of the book have completed Graduation (2000), Post- Graduation (2002) and Doctorate (2007) from B.H.U. She qualified NET in 2002 and being a research scholar visited Stockholm University -Sweden as part of research program. The Published work of author can be referred in Chapters of Book-Matrix of Gender Issues- Trivedi and Jain (eds.) 2010. Currently positioned as a Researcher in Dept. of Pol. Sci.-Stockholm University- Sweden, author holds keen interests in research areas like Women Empowerment, Gender Quota, Globalization and Culture, Women in Organization and Women Entrepreneurship. Author holds membership of multiple intellectual associations including Association for Political Theory, American Association of Political Science, Network for future Global Leaders and Asia Research Forum- Sweden, in order to be aware of research works at Global level.

The present research work is based on the study of women legislators of Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha from 1980 to 2005. It focuses on some main issues related to women legislators such as their historical background in politics, their socio-economic and political profile, their role in different political parties, especially in Uttar Pradesh, the ways by which they got their political position, their role performance, their involvement in decision inaking process, the social and cultural impediments in the way of their participation in politics etc. Thus, in totality the study is geared towards generating a debate on the issue of women political participation in India.

During the period 1980 to 2005 some important events took place in Uttar Pradesh. The state was divided to create a new state named Uttarakhand comprising 13 districts with an area of 53483 km² and 84, 79,562 populations. Secondly, recategorization of caste was made by the state through a notification resulting in a massive change in the caste structure of the state and shifting a good number of people from general category to Other Backward Castes. This change brought an impact over the reservation policy of legislators in the assembly. The passage of the 73 Constitutional Amendment Bill through which 1/3 seats were reserved for women in Panchayati Raj Institutions created a ray of hope among women towards reservation in the state assemblies as well as in the Parliament. Moreover, it also became a means of increasing women's participation in politics. Due to these events the state's population, geographical area, political position as well as many other socio-economic indicators got effected which naturally had an impact on the study. However as a researcher I have tried to analyze the available facts keeping all these in mind. Inspite of the best efforts, the present research work could not get rid of some limitations.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages