Abstract her talk: Communities in Maldives have been adapting to complex changes, social, economic, political and environmental in nature. These changes are mutually reinforcing and have shaped and are in turn shaped by adaptation. Contemporary discourse on adaptation focusses on climate change, which is a legitimate concern especially for island countries. However, this tendency to package all vulnerabilities as related to climate, might run the risk of concealing issues that give rise to other forms of vulnerability, for instance gender. Although gender has been a concern in adaptation literature, the progress has been slow and has been accused of homogenizing women as a vulnerable group. This presentation, drawing from empirical work in Maldives, attempts to critically understand adaptation, and its gendered consequence on mobility (considered as an important adaptive strategy).