Abstract.  In the late 1990s a social movement promoting rural community development emerged in Lithuania. The majority of local organizers and participants were educated professional women who, during the Soviet-era, administered and coordinated the social infrastructure of kolkhoz or state owned collective farms (teachers, office clerks, accountants, and nurses). As kolkhozes were privatized in the immediate post-Soviet period, a large number of educated professional women have been laid-off. Many such women have become active in the rural community development movement and, comprise a large segment of its core activists. The research presented here relies upon data collected during 2004 on a nationally representative sample of rural, non-governmental organizations in Lithuania (N=237). The paper describes the population of rural community organizations in terms of gender of its leadership. Furthermore, the paper identifies and discusses how organizations led by women differ in terms of their issue priorities, public activities, and impacts from organizations with predominantly male leaders and those with relatively balanced mix of male and female leadership.