Male migration among agriculture-dependent households hasemerged as an important livelihood strategy for coping withpoverty, food insecurity, climate change, and several otherrisks and shocks in the Global South. Emerging research onthe impacts of male migration on women’s agency, especiallyin agricultural production and decision-making, paints aone-size-fits-all picture. This paper, through a comparative,qualitative analysis of the implications of male out-migrationon gender roles and responsibilities in agriculture across fourdifferent agroecologies in India – forested, mountainous,semi-arid, and coastal – highlights the heterogeneity in wom-en’s experiences of male migration in the Indian context.While the nature of migration and the amount and regularityof remittances shape the increase or decline in women’s workand responsibilities, factors like age, caste, class, life stage, andcontext also play a significant role. We note that currentscholarship has given too much importance to the narrativeon remittance-driven livelihoods at the cost of multiple fac-tors that shape women’s roles, experiences, and strategicchoices in migrant-sending communities. What appears criticalfor transformative change is state policy that facilitates andenables collective action, central to overcoming the patriar-chal constraints women encounter, especially as they shiftfrom labouring to managerial roles in farming.