In this article we examine transnational and international discourses and initiatives focused on and/or carried out by the so-called “mountain women”. Tracking the growing reference to “mountain women”, we analyze the way the construction and the claim of a gendered identity has developed within the general debate about the international recognition of the global importance of mountain environments that emerged about 20 years ago. Drawing on documents, a survey and interviews, our main objective aims at exploring how such a reference could lead to the making of an imagined community of “mountain women” offering opportunities for political action. This article concludes that, though women are identified in international discourses as essential contributors to sustainable mountain development, the social identity “mountain women” has not yet evolved into a collective identity around which political solidarities and strategies coalesce to ultimately ground collective action. Indeed, women's organizations have other themes on their agendas and are active at other scales apart from the global one. Indeed, few are willing to identify themselves as “mountain women”. For the time being, “mountain women” remain silent partners of the global agenda for sustainable mountain development.