Background: The role of women is strongly associated with health behavior. Understanding the illness experiences of women with diabetes helps health professionals to provide appropriate health care to women with diabetes. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the illness experiences of women with diabetes. Methods: This study used interpretive ethnographic methods with in-depth interviews and field observations to obtain emic points of view from women who were diagnosed with diabetes. Agar's hermeneutic cycle was used to analyze the collected data. The participants were recruited under the principle of maximum variation. The inclusion criteria targeted women who: (1) had been diagnosed with diabetes for at least one year, (2) were able to speak Mandarin or Taiwanese, and (3) were willing to participate and have their sessions tape-recorded in a diabetes clinic in southern Taiwan. A total of 18 women with diabetes between 24 and 79 years of age were enrolled as participants. Results: ＂Disorder in life and the world＂ was the main storyline elicited from participants. The four themes constructed from this disorder were: (1) disorder of the body: reliance on medical care to understand the body, (2) disorder of life: shift from being in control of food to being controlled by food, (3) disorder of the family: sick person is perceived as incompetent, and (4) disorder of the self: controlling the body for the family. Conclusions / Implications for Practice: Healthcare providers should recognize and make positive use of the potential of the cultural role of women to improve the ability of women to self-manage their diabetes. Additionally, perceiving the entire family as the client may improve the illness experience for Asian women with diabetes.