Shirin M. Rai, Professor, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick, and Carole Spary, Assistant Professor, School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham

Shirin M. Rai is Professor in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick, UK. She has written extensively on issues of gender, governance and development in academic journals and her latest books include New Frontiers in Feminist Political Economy ; Democracy in Practice: Ceremony and Ritual in Parliament (ed.), and The Grammar of Politics and Performance (eds. with Janelle Reinelt). She has consulted with the United Nations' Division for the Advancement of Women and UNDP. She is a founder member of the South Asia Research Network on Gender, Law and Governance, and she was Director of the Leverhulme Trust programme on Gendered Ceremony and Ritual in Parliament (2007-2011). She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and an executive committee member of the International Political Science Association. She has also been a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Gender Institute, London School of Economics (2012 -2015).

Carole Spary is Assistant Professor at the School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham, UK. Prior to this she was Lecturer in Politics at the University of York (2011-2014) and Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Warwick (2008-2011). She has published on democratic politics and development, particularly gender, development, political representation and political institutions in India, including journal articles on women's political leadership in India and candidate nomination in elections, a comparative study of first female Speakers, and on disruption and ethno-linguistic representation in the Indian parliament. She has also written on gender, development and the state in India, and she teaches on gender and development and Asian politics. She has guest edited two special issues of the journals Democratisation and Contemporary South Asia.

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"India - the most populous democracy in the world - has just 64 women in the Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament), ranking 149th worldwide in this regard. Why? This terrific new study by Shirin Rai and Carole Spary provides fresh insights into issues of representation and representativeness, gender and power, and the role of women in parliament - both within India and more broadly. Drawing upon qualitative and quantitative evidence, this book provides an essential contribution towards the literature on women in politics." - Pippa Norris, Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

"This book certainly goes a long way in providing an insightful study of women who have successfully become Members of Parliament. It tells much that is of great interest about the ways in which they navigate their way to electoral success and also about their experiences in what is still a bastion of patriarchy - the party system. It is this important characteristic that is the main reason for the very limited numbers of women MPs that have never gone much beyond 12% of the total." - Subhashini Ali, Former Member, Indian Parliament; President, All India Democratic Women's Association; Member, Communist Party of India.

"This complete guide to women's presence and performance in India's Parliament is a must read for anyone interested in gender and politics. Fascinating stories and critical analysis illuminate the multiple challenges women face in every dimension of their parliamentary politics/life." - Niraja Gopal Jayal, professor, Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India