Gender mainstreaming is a policy-driven process of integrating gender concerns into development structures and practices. Particular ways of thinking (‘myths’) underpin gender mainstreaming and this will be demonstrated in community fisheries in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap region. Involving women may inadvertently overlook women’s disproportionate share of caring responsibilities and the traditional male terrain of fishery management. In short, these myths in gender mainstreaming may mainstream women into community fisheries to advance goals of fishery protection, but may fail to redress gender inequality and social inequities in the first place, thus resulting in more counterproductive effects than positive ones