Abstract. Rural women, present but invisible in the emerging processes of the rural environment, are revealed as a driving group for the reconstruction of rural territories. This sector of the population promotes creative processes that energize the rural world and implement diversification strategies necessary to sustain life and the territory. These strategies lead to the diversification of the territory's productive functions and the creation of sustainable rural tourism destinations with a territorial approach. However, they do not show significant changes in the gender division of labour. Through a qualitative analysis carried out under the methodological principles of the Grounded Theory, an explanatory framework is constructed about the role of women in the public sphere of rural tourist destinations. Thus, after analysing the reality of Murcia in particular and the Spanish, Mexican and Thai reality in general, the response patterns show a prevalence of gender roles to sustain the territory and enable its transition to the destination. In the configuration of the tourist destination, women are perceived as facilitators for the design of transversal actions. Key words: rural women, ecofeminism, territorial rural development, rural tourist destinations.