Women smallholder farmers globally are confronting social, economic and environmental challenges related to water resource management with impacts on access to energy, drinking water and food. Furthermore, it is common for women in rural regions to be subjected to physical, economic and slow violence. This study was carried out in a region extending north of the Andean foothills to the Caribbean Sea in South America. The study sites are located along high, middle and low elevation gradients within the South, Center and North of Colombia’s Magdalena River watershed. We utilize a water-energy-food (WEF) nexus framework with a gender lens to analyze women smallholders in the fields and the home in three rural communities. The WEF nexus framework helps reveal integral connections between these elements to show how women gain access to these resources to produce food and reproduce lives. They must use a variety of different sources of water and food, energy, each of which requires different management techniques.