In this study, I develop a different analytical approach to the study of women’s organising. My aim is develop a method of enquiry which goes beyond ideal type assessments of organisational behaviour and the resultant narratives which often appear to map a linear trajectory of women’s waxing or waning political influence over time. My own study of women’s organising and gender politics in Fiji, and the broader Pacific region, gives extended consideration to the prevailing currents—socio-cultural, political, economic, religious, domestic and global—that have shaped the political landscapes negotiated by women activists across the past forty years. Importantly, I show how these broader factors influence the decisions women activists make about the appropriateness of their various advocacy strategies. Like many studies of gender politics conducted in other settings, this book therefore examines the emergence of evident trends in women’s advocacy conducted on the local, regional and international stage since the 1960s. What makes this study distinctive, however, is the effort made Introduction: Situating Women 3 to situate this activity within a global and local political context. In short, this investigation is driven by a preliminary question: How is women’s political agency shaped by broader political contingencies?