This article analyzes the strategies that a sample of Maya men and women of Yucatan, Mexico used to avoid dropping out of school. Data from in-depth interviews, focus groups and life stories were analyzed using grounded theory techniques through a non-essentialist gender approach. Among the Maya, statistics show that women drop out of school before middle school at a higher rate than men. However, it is also true that women more frequently attain a university education. The gathered evidence allows for the hypothesis that gender roles are changing, and the effects of patrifocal models of education in families are not necessarily always detrimental to women. These findings could help other Maya men and women as well as people of other Indigenous cultures by pointing out that it is possible for Indigenous peoples to surmount the barriers imposed by the modern educational systems on their nations.