Women often suffer from lesser status in society, particularly in terms of rights, opportunities, and other tangible aspects of inequality. Yet lesser “official” status need not mean an absence of power or influence. Even in highly patriarchal societies, women can project power in unexpected ways. This paper explores the paradoxical power of women in patriarchal societies. Using original experimental data from Kuwait, it tests the hypothesis that women can reduce corruption and cronyism by convincing men to pursue more ethically conscious and pro-social behavior: namely, actions intended to benefit others and the larger society, including helping, sharing, following the law, contributing, and cooperating. The hypothesis is motivated by the author’s prior research and fieldwork in the Arab Gulf. For example, in an experiment in the UAE, the author found that 82% of Arab male subjects cheated on a general knowledge quiz, compared to only 12% of Arab female subjects. Indeed, in experiments in a variety of cultural settings, women are often found to behave more ethically than men, and people’s perceptions align with that finding. To give a recent example, cross-national survey work in the Middle East (presented at MESA 2015) by Lindsay Benstead and Ellen Lust finds that female candidates for office are viewed as significantly less corrupt than male candidates (if also less qualified). Women may therefore influence men to abide by higher moral and pro-social standards, due to reputational concerns and social sanctioning; imitation and role modeling; higher trust and expectations of reciprocity; and/or a desire to impress. The research makes several contributions. First, it tests a novel hypothesis about the drivers of good behavior. The literature in this area has taken several approaches, including priming “God concepts,” heightening self-awareness, and introducing honor codes. However, research to date has not assessed the impact of priming positive gender characteristics, e.g. imagining positive interactions with female equals and role-models. Second, it offers descriptive data on patterns of prosocial and ethical behavior; research on this topic is very limited in the Gulf region. In addition to standard economic games such as dictator and public goods scenarios, surveys captured a range of attitudes toward hypothetical ethical transgressors, including government officials using public funding for family vacations. Finally, the research may make important theoretical contributions, such as helping to explain why more women in legislatures is linked to lessened corruption cross-nationally.