There has been a significant increase in the number of women members who have an active role in cooperatives and Union. The table below shows the number of women in each committee and per coop.

Women have been encouraged to take leading roles in the individual co-ops and within RECOCARNO. Before joining RECOCARNO, and therefore being required to fulfil the Fairtrade standards for non-discrimination, many of the coops did not adopt ways of using women's potential and expecting them to fulfil only non-managerial roles. Now in CAFUMO, for example, the vice-president is a woman and the management committee consists of two women and two men. Women outnumber men in the education committee. This newer approach also helps to reflect gender proportions in the co-op as a whole, where more women than men are members. Training has been arranged where lack of knowledge and skills have hampered participation.

Encouragement and training is provided in a variety of ways including sharing of experiences with other co-operatives through visits and regional meetings. Taking part naturally develops their ability to speak in public, and make their views and voices heard, and how to work within a formal organisation. Women also understand the childcare and other domestic arrangements that are necessary to help them fulfil their co-operative roles.

The increased participation by women has encouraged others to follow the example and to overcome their reticence. Men have been supportive as they have realised the contribution that women can make to their mutual enterprise. Female members are able to receive loans to develop their activities in the same way as men and all members share the same benefits when they sell their coffee.

Women are expected to remain with their families while, in some cases and particularly in the east of Haïti, husbands go to work in the sugar plantations of the Dominican Republic after the coffee harvest is over. This has also encouraged innovation amongst those women who have been able to share ideas, through their groups, for trade and diversification.