AbstractQuantitative psychometric experiments and surveys have been used extensively in the field of risk research to explore the cognitive and cultural determinants of beliefs about environmental risk. We adopt a conceptually novel approach called effects made by genderand conduct an interpretive, qualitative study involving secondary analysis of a data set comprising 11 reconvened focus groups. The groups were initially designed to compare talk about the meanings for people of six different risk cases: climate change, nuclear power and radioactive waste, genetically modified foods and crops, human genetic testing, mobile phone handsets and transmission masts. In-depth findings and insights are presented concerning the dynamic role played by gender binaries, epistemic subject positions and identity-making within the workings of gender discourses. These serve to define everyday realities and (de)stabilize taken-for-granted ‘truths’ of gender difference in risk perception studies. A deeper regulatory role is identified for hegemonic masculinity; in particular, how concern for risk is downplayed when set alongside the cultural and psychological gains made from technological world-making. Care discourses are also part of the matrix of culture-technology-identity relationships responsible for creating effects made by gender.