The papers in this volume were selected and revised from among those presented at the conference: 'Gender Social Transformation: Transnational, and Local Realities and Perspectives', Beijing, China in 2009. Through case studies and interview data from across the globe we see how intersectionality and inequality are contextualized shaping women's agencies, gender relations, identity, the politics of belonging, power structures, institutional arrangements, and empowerment (self and/or collective) in local communities and cultures influenced by transnational and global networks and processes.