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The stepwise details carried out in the analysis is presented as follows:

Table 1: Step-wise regression analysis of profile characteristics of the respondents towards the women empowerment

(Women empowerment) = - 0.07956 + 0.074** X1 (Age) + 0.205** X4 (Respondents' education) + 0.649** X9 (Innovativeness) + 0.205** X10 (Risk orientation) + 0.159** X15 (Self confidence) + 0.081** X17 (Trainings undergone)

Step I

In this step risk orientation alone included. The R2 value was 0.341.

Step II

In this step, the dependent variable viz., Self confidence was included additionally. So the R2 value was 0.368. The R2 value was increased by 0.027 units due to the inclusion of self confidence.

Step III

In the step III, the dependent variable 'Innovativeness' was included based on the higher significant value. The R2 value was 0.389. The R2 value increased by 0.021 units due to the inclusion of innovativeness.

Step IV

In this step IV, the dependent variable 'Trainings undergone' was additionally added along with the existing variable. The R2 value was 0.400. Due to the inclusion of the variable trainings undergone there was increase in the R2 value by 0.011 units.

Step V

In this step V, the independent variable 'Age' was included (other variables got less significance than age). The R2 value was 0.418. There was 0.018 unit was increased in the R2 value due to the inclusion of the variable age.

Step VI

In the step VI, the independent variable 'Respondents' education' was included along with the already existing five variables. The R2 value was 0.421. This is due to the inclusion of sixth variable respondents' education. Hence the R2 value was increased by 0.003 units.

Step VII

In the step VII, the R2 value was 0.421 there was no increase in the R2 value. Since the other 11 variables had no higher significant value. So the step up regression analysis was stopped at this stage.
It could be inferred from the Table 1 that there were 11 independent variables have got eliminated from 17 independent variables. The six variables viz., age, respondents' education, innovativeness, risk orientation, self confidence and trainings undergone were derived as most influencing variables towards women empowerment. All these six variables put together have contributed to the tune of 42.10 per cent variation in the changes in overall empowerment. As already indicated, the contribution of all the seventeen variables for the change in overall empowerment was 54.90 per cent. From this it could be implied that the 11 eliminated variables put together were responsible for only 12.80 per cent of variation. Hence their elimination is substantiated.
From the above finding the following inferences could be drawn.

• The extension personnel can concentrate on middle aged women while contemplating their involvement in various extension programmes. Since the empirical data of the study denoted that nearly half of the women (46.00%) fell in the middle aged category. This finding was corroborated with the findings of Verma (1986) that more than half of the women beneficiaries of IRDP participated in training.
• The farm women may be encouraged to take part in various distance education programmes in order to increase their education level because the study by Misra and Charnjeen Singh (1998) revealed that 25.00 per cent of the representatives had no formal schooling while 28.00 per cent had studied only upto primary school. Graduates account for 10.70 per cent of the representatives while professionals constitute 0.71 per cent.
• Though trainings are periodically and systematically organized through TANWA and TNWDP the extension personnel should also concentrate on confidence building. As focused by Nair and White (1987), extension participation is a process of enabling or empowering rural people to manage their own development. Further, they reported that "people must be able to educate themselves through developing thinking, acting and problem solving abilities. Participation will give individuals a sense of power which will increase their control over the environment and enable them to shape their own destiny", participation in its most developed form is "self management".
• Saravanakumar (2000) reported that farm women in general had high level of innovativeness. About seventy per cent of the participants had high level of innovativeness and 19.72 per cent had low level of innovativeness. Further, Palmurugan (2002) study revealed that majority (87.80%) of the farm women had medium level of innovativeness, followed by 10.80 and 1.40 per cent of farm women who had low and high levels of innovativeness respectively. Hence, the extension personnel should effectively use the cross media approach to create awareness about innovations within a short period of time among all the farm women. Such an attempt will induce more and more farm women to be innovative in their activities.

CONCLUSION

Neela (1994) reported that participation in extension activities, by its nature varies in degrees, modes and kinds. The process of participation tends to be unique on every occasion and the kind and degree of participation also tends to differ. Different participative methods were evolved in response to different situations and the product of participation changes from time to time and from location to location. Hence Identifying critical variables which influence more on empowerment would pave way for disseminating right technology or any welfare programmes to right people in right way. Ultimately it would reap the fruitful results.

REFERENCES

Ganesan, R. (1989). Participation Pattern of Officials, Farm Leaders and Farmer Beneficiaries in Agricultural Development Schemes-A Critical Analysis. Unpub. Ph.D., Thesis, TNAU, Coimbatore.
Misra, & Suresh & Singh, C. (1980). Rural Leadership in Haryana: Changing Profile. Kurukshetra, XLVI 7, 42-43.
Neela, M. (1994). Participatory Rural Appraisal: Methodology and Applications. Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi.
Paulmurugan, M. (2002). Prospects of Empowering Farm Womwn in Irrigated Farming System. Unpub. M.Sc. (Ag.) Thesis, TNAU, Coimbatore.
Sivarevathy, A. L. (1996). Participaion of Farm Women in Deveopment Programmes. Unpub. M.Sc. (Ag.) Thesis, TNAU, Coimbatore.
Saravanakumar, M. (2000). Impact of TANWA in the Empowerment of Women. Unpub. M.Sc. (Ag.) Thesis, TNAU, Coimbatore.

Verma, G. L. (1986). Women Beneficiaries and IRDP. Journal of Rural Development, 5(4), 437-479.