Morocco’s development strategies are mainly focused on women’s participation in cooperatives as solutions to poverty and gender inequality. However, through detailed analysis of the structure, governance and benefits of 15 wheat cooperatives in Morocco, we find such anti-poverty and efficiency-based approaches alone do little to address women’s subordinate role in the family, society and economy as well as their limited land ownership rates. Further, our findings demonstrate that the impact of COVID- 19 has exacerbated vulnerabilities and gaps in access and incomes resulting in massive losses and disruptions, with most members and especially workers struggling to put food on the table, let alone achieve empowerment, as proposed by Morocco’s emphasis on cooperatives as vehicles to improve women’s lives.