Book excerpt: The shift toward 'government by risk' and the fore-fronting of 'risk consciousness' has not had the same impact on men and women alike. Complex and multiple understandings of femininity and masculinity inform risk thinking, as well as institutional and individual responses to various risks. This collection of international and interdisciplinary papers analyses what we currently known about gendered risks. It also identifies some of the new directions and challenges for research and theory that emerge out of thinking risk as a governmental technique, as a form of consciousness and action, and as a political issue, that shapes, and is shaped by, gender in contemporary society.