This article explores the gender differentiation of vulnerability to the drought situation within a rural community in Nicaragua. Women and men use different strategies to cope with drought in the short term, and to adapt to the recurring El Niño induced events in the longer term. The article uses the Community Capitals Framework (CCF) to look at what resources women and men in the case study area have lost and what capitals are most central for their coping and adaptation capacity. A gender perspective is applied to see what difference in access to capitals between men and women exist and what that means in terms of gender-differentiated vulnerability to drought.