Exploring the interlinkages of political parties, religiosity, and women's leadership and nominations to public office, this book argues that as party religiosity increases, women's chances of assuming leadership positions fall. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods, it advances a new theory of party variation in religiosity.

Uganda has attracted much attention and political visibility for its significant economic recovery after a catastrophic decline. In her groundbreaking book, Aili Mari Tripp provides extensive data and analysis of patterns of political behavior and institutions by focusing on the unique success of indigenous women's organizations. Tripp explores why the women's movement grew so dramatically in such a short time after the National Resistant Movement took over in 1986. Unlike many African countries where organizations and institutions are controlled by a ruling party or regime, the Ugandan women's movement gained its momentum by remaining autonomous.

Volume III ('Health and Sexuality') brings together the best-and most influential-scholarship on contentious themes such as the increasing imbalance in sex ratios in the region as a result of female infanticide, sex-selective abortions, and the kidnapping of wives. Research gathered in this volume also covers reproductive health; violence against women (e.g. female genital mutilation, dowry burnings, and honour killings); same-sex attraction and diverse gender identity; and medicine and health care (including work on traditional medicine and mental-health problems specific to women in the region, such as the high suicide rates in China and South Asia). The material collected in Volume IV ('Constructions of the Feminine') focuses on women in the family (e.g. gendered role expectations); women in religion; Western perceptions of Asian women (e.g. stereotypes of passivity); women in the arts; and official discourses on the feminine (such as the promotion by Asian governments of gender roles). Women in Asia is fully indexed and each of the four volumes has a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editors, which provides extended reading lists and places the material in its historical and intellectual context. It is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars and students-as well as policy-makers and community activists-as a vital one-stop research resource

The nineteenth century saw a lengthy and unusually intense conflict between religion and national politics over public space. Using case-studies of nations in both Europe and Latin America, the contirbutors to this unusual comparative volume explore the nature, background and consequences of this conflict from a revisionist and empirical viewpoint, incorporating the latest research and recasting the debate in the light of recent discussions about modernity. A substantial introduction sketches the vital issues and the major conclusions, and takes stock of the debate and where it is leading. contributors include: Margaret Lavinia Anderson, University of California, Berkeley; David Brading, University of Cambridge; Frances Lannon, University of Oxford; Patricia Londono Vega, University of Antioquia, Colombia; James F. McMillan, University of Edinburgh; Erika Maza Valenzuela, University of Oxford; J. Samuel Valenzuela, University of Notre Dame; Eric Van Young, University of California, San Diego.