The exact nature of this phenomenon is never explained. When there is no male to be their king, the Gerudo are led by a chief with the position passed on from mother to daughter. This male is destined to become their king. A rather peculiar aspect of the Gerudo is that the race consists almost entirely of women, with a male being born only once every hundred years.
The exception to this is Majora's Mask, where the Gerudo live along the coastal Great Bay.
The Gerudo are a desert-dwelling folk, being indigenous to the Gerudo Valley where they congregate in the Gerudo's Fortress in Ocarina of Time, appear to lead nomadic lives in the Desert of Doubt in Four Swords Adventures, and live as merchants in Gerudo Town in Breath of the Wild.