This article devises a road ahead for future studies of gender mainstreaming of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) processes. In comparison to other fields, DRR processes lag behind in implementing a gender perspective, despite decades of activism among practitioners, activists and researchers. More research is needed to understand why this is so, since there is only a handful studies focusing the issue and none that systematically explores this failure. In comparison, there is an abundance of research done on gender mainstreaming within other fields of practice. With help of this bulk of research, the article extends the limited research done on gender mainstreaming of DRR. Gender mainstreaming theory from other fields is used to identify relevant factors that may hinder effective gender mainstreaming of DRR, in order to devise a solid research strategy for more systematic research on the topic in the future.