Coronary artery disease (CAD) involves men and women alike and sufficient gender differences exist when the patient is a woman. It is observed that noninvasive diagnostic testing is less accurate in women, whereas invasive testing is underperformed; coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) has higher morbidity and mortality, and advantages of risk-factor modification are less apparent for women compared to men. In order to rectify these perceptions, the clinician must make an effort and generate awareness of implication of gender, age and chest pain characteristics as diagnostic tools for CAD, and then needs to understand the advantages, disadvantages and accuracy of the available resources including noninvasive tests. In addition, women with a high possibility of operable disease should be referred for coronary angiography. Also, bypass grafting should be performed more carefully in women, particularly in women with severe CAD or congestive heart failure. Finally, risk-factor stratification and modification is to be undertaken with respect to smoking and possibly hormonal replacement therapy (HRT).