In Senegal, pastoralist women play a key role in dairy production; yet, they face huge constraints in getting access to economic resources. Lower income translates into an unfavorable position in decision- making within their households, which in turn negatively impacts their access to income sources, thus generating vicious circles of discrimination. In this context, an important innovation was brought by Laiterie du Berger, a dairy processing unit that was set up in the sylvo-pastoral area to collect milk from pastoralists and sell its products to urban consumers. Based on a relational approach to durable poverty, inequality and power, as well as on quantitative and qualitative data, this paper aims at bringing light on the impact of Laiterie du Berger on gender relationships within pastoralist households, more exactly on the vicious circle between poverty and power inequality in which women are trapped. Our results show that, although women were initially pushed aside from the economic transactions with the dairy, they would have gradually taken over the sale of milk, thanks to the leadership of the most empowered ones, and partially exit from their vicious circle. This study offers a useful case study to scale up innovation in the dairy sector.