Synopsis The emergence of women’s studies as a full-fledged academic discipline calls for a thorough investigation into the subject. A senior police officer, who is an academic and author too, has undertaken the task in right earnest. The net result of his painstaking research in this monumental study on women today. Their status, drawn on the historical background, rise, decline, fall, and rise again, peculiar to special areas such as marriage, dowry, family life, career, matrimonial problems, divorce, etc., have been thoroughly examined. Being in the law-enforcing agency, the author has exposed the complex family problems, sexual harassment and crime against women in full detail. A truly encyclopaedic study which covers the quintessential woman of Tagore: “I am no goddess to be worshipped, nor the object of common pity to be brushed aside like a moth with indifference. If you desire to keep me by your side in the path of danger and daring, you allow me to share the great duties of your life then you will know my true self.” Controversial subjects such as Muslim Personal Law inj relation to women, age of marriage, battered wife, dowry deaths, women’s lib movement, women against women have been dealt with thoroughly.