In the Tonle Sap Region, Community Fisheries (CFs) have been recently constituted by the Cambodian Government to address the needs for local and sustainable management of fisheries resources. Local women are being urged to participate in these institutions by various state and non-state programmes. However, actual social conditions and practices of people demonstrate that women are not actively involved in de facto fisheries management with its complex mosaic of rules, rights and roles. Inserting women into this programme by only addressing poverty reduction and conservation goals without recognizing actual gender/social inequalities, may inadvertently reproduce existing gender hierarchies instead of actually transforming them.