The thesis of this talk is that both women’s representation and how gender is represented have important implications for how water resource development and management impact women and men. In terms of numerical representation, irrigation, fishing and hydropower bureaucracies in the Mekong Region are dominated by men. The same is often true in national parliaments and local water institutions. In terms of how gender is represented, simplistic stereotypes still dominate public debate and media. Women are mothers who look after children and prepare food; rarely are women fishers, irrigators or planners. This talk explores the thesis through two research studies. The first is about how women and men in different eco-cultural contexts around Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, deal with water-related insecurities such as droughts and floods. The second examines how civil society organizations engaged in hydropower issues in the Mekong Region represent gender in their campaigns, and whether they have succeeded at making political space for women. The analysis shows evidence of strong gender norms, misleading simplifications and strategic distortions. The findings are of practical value to civil society and government organizations committed to women’s empowerment as well as a contribution to scholarship debunking gender essentialism.