This book aims to explore the meanings and operation of agency exercised by women in various cultures and contexts in Asia. It analyses women's capacity for action and how women sometimes resist the discourses and conditions that shape their lives. The book also discusses how this agency can be interpreted and assessed. The contributors to this book examine particular women's practice and expression in particular contexts: 'parasite singles'-especially unmarried young women-in Japan, whose unconventional lifestyles seem to effect a subversion of the expected female roles of daughters, mothers, and wives: Indonesian women employed as domestic workers in Singapore: the women from South Korea and the Philippines who have married Japanese men through the international marriage business system: female Muslim healers in Lombok who work against fate: rural Balinese women who have their babies in hospitals: and female performers and performances in contemporary Indonesian theatre.