This international conference focuses on the worldwide multiplicity of gender orders against the background of the global variety of societal dynamics of change. The theoretical point of reference is Shmuel Eisenstadt’s multiple modernities paradigm and its consistent further development towards entangled and shared modernities. In addition to empirical analyses in different local contexts (e.g., Japan, MaIaysia, Pakistan, Iran and Tunesia), the conference also intends to integrate transcultural and post-colonial perspectives. The central questions are: how can we compare and conceive of varying social configurations of gender and society worldwide in a theoretically adequate way? What is different about ‘other’ gender cultures, and what do plural gender orders have in common?