In a typical fisher family, men would usually engage in production-oriented activities such as fish harvesting or navigating the vessel, while women would by and large engage in post-harvest activities such as distribution and marketing. These traditional roles of women in fisheries have changed over time but their contributions to the overall development of the fisheries sector in the region remain significant. In spite of the multidimensional roles of women in fisheries, their contributions often go unnoticed. There are several reports of discrimination in wages and working conditions, especially in the processing sector. Various social indicators such as sex ratio and literacy rate also suggest that there is a need to empower women. While these features may be a reflection of society at large, in the context of fisheries, it implies that women in practice are far from the decisionmaking processes at the macro level. Experiences so far on the involvement of women in the marine fisheries sector show that the removal of constraints can lead to their productive engagement. The first constraint is that despite women playing a significant role in distribution and post-harvesting, they do not have much power to influence the process. The second constraint is that their role in economic activities is not reflected in their social status as captured in sex ratio and literacy rate differentials. The third constraint is that unlike men, examples of successful women’s enterprises show the necessity of group effort. In other words, solo ventures by women possibly have little chance of success. These factors could inhibit unlocking the full potential of women in enterprise and decision-making. While these constraints are mostly part of the position of women in the larger society, the fisheries sector can bring in changes by moving to principles as described in the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on Small-scale Fisheries Governance. Paper published in ‘Better World’, Tudor Rose Publication, 2016.