Central Asia is a part of the world that was virtually unknown to outsiders until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1990–91, and it remains unknown to large portions of the world’s population. This book is the sixth in a planned seven-book series on Asian Women in Leadership. Preceding this book is an overview of Asia in the first book, followed by books focused on Korea, India, Japan, and China. Following this book is an in-process book on the Middle East. While I have served as a co-editor on each of these books, the lead co-editor in every instance has been a woman from the country or region of focus. As with the other Asian countries included in this book series, women in Asia have been making progress in varying degrees in acquiring leadership roles in the five republics of Central Asia. However, as the chapters in this book illustrate, there remains tension between the desire for gender equality and the pull of traditional gender roles.