Most of the women's lives within the pesantren compound are not publicly known; the physical segregation applied in most pesantrens has also contributed to this situation. Due to the physical segregation, women's lives in the pesantren have been misunderstood as confined to the private domain of women's world. As in a number of works on pesantrens, women's figures, their agency or even their situation or daily life is ignored, unacknowledged and effectively omitted from the pesantren world. Initially, I assumed this might only appear in earlier works on pesantren, but even in more current and contemporary research this tendency still occurs. In the research that does acknowledge the presence of women in the life and work of the pesantren, there is a tendency to persist with the idea that pesantren women or nyais have weaker agency. My perspective in looking at their agency involves by placing it within their own context of pesantren together with the set of patriarchal values that exist in pesantren traditions, with some limitations and restrictions applied. With this in mind, their roles and agency look not only different but significant. Comparing those pesantren women with men of their pesantren, including kiai, or comparing them with other women that do not have the similar situation they encountered will only come to the conclusion that their roles are weaker, and insignificant.

The initial access to pesantren education for women in Java occurred coincidentally with a general awareness of the significance of education for women at the beginning of the twentieth century. Since then, women have been part of pesantren education, as pupils, instructors, or even leaders. Yet, the pesantren world still adopts a set of patriarchal values, for instance in the leadership succession; male descendants are almost always prioritised. Besides, the majority of pesantren still teach the legacy on gender relations from the kitab kuning which has been criticized for its patriarchal notions. Those textbooks also contained the theoretical split between public and private spheres. Some stories and passage of the textbooks identify a split role of women and men in the discussion of marital life. The notion of public men and private women appears significant. Criticism has been voiced by some figures and organisations regarding pesantrens for something called “gender bias” that the pesantren institution has preserved.