The Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (VG SSF), endorsed by the 31st Session of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI) in June 2014, are a major achievement towards ensuring secure and sustainable small scale fisheries. Significant is that the VG SSF make a serious attempt to include the role of women in small scale fisheries; they address issues of importance for women’s lives and livelihoods and attempt to ensure gender sensitive policies and measures. By applying a gender lens to the VG SSF, this note synthesises all the articles of the VG SSF of importance for gender equality in small scale fisheries and assesses the opportunities and limitations. The note concludes that the VG SSF, despite several weaknesses, do provide an opportunity for a transformative plan of action for implementation and key strategies are identified.