In this paper, we examine how CEO duality and gender influence firms’ responses to the government’s urge to alleviate poverty. Literature suggests that powerful CEOs such that CEOs with duality tend to resist external institutional pressures. However, we further theorize that female CEOs with duality are able to resist successfully due to their relative social isolation compared with their male counterparts, which unintendedly grants them shields from external pressures. Using data on 2,857 publicly-listed firms in China from 2016 to 2020, we find consistent evidence that firms led by female CEOs with duality respond less to the government’s poverty alleviation campaign and the effect is more salient in regions featuring less gender equality. Our study contributes to institutional studies by bringing in a gender perceptive and highlighting the conditions under which the social divide may turn into advantages.