Purpose: There are reports of greater survival rates in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients of female gender. The objective of this study was to evaluate the role of gender in survival of NSCLC patients treated surgically with curative intent (stage I/II). Methods: In a retrospective cohort design, we screened 498 NSCLC patients submitted to thoracotomies at the hospital Sγo Lucas, in Porto Alegre, Brazil from 1990 to 2009. After exclusion of patients that did not fit to all the inclusion criteria, we analyzed survival rates of 385 subjects. Survival was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method. The Cox regression model was used to evaluate potential confounding factors. Results: Survival rates at 5 and 10 years were 65.3% and 49.5% for women and 46.5% and 33.2% for men, respectively ( P = 0.006). Considering only stage I patients, the survival rates at 5 and 10 years were 76.2% and 55.1% for women and 50.7% and 35.4% for men, respectively ( P = 0.011). No significant differences in survival rates were found among stage II patients. Conclusions: Our results show female gender as a possible protective factor for better survival of stage I NSCLC patients, but not among stage II patients. This study adds data to the knowledge that combined both genders survival rates for NSCLC is not an adequate prognosis.