Within the Middle East and North Africa, Morocco has in recent years been at the vanguard of positive changes for women in public policy. The country has seen significant advances in women’s legal rights and in formal government commitments to ensuring gender equality, including in political representation, driven both by strong, autonomous feminist civil society organizations and by top-down prioritization of a gender-sensitive agenda. At the same time, women’s economic empowerment remains elusive. Women’s economic activity rate remains among the lowest in the world and is falling, female unemployment (particularly among young, well-educated women) is high, and women who are in the labor force are more likely to be in precarious work. Drawing on qualitative interviews, analysis of public policies, and administrative and survey data, this paper argues that political avoidance of confronting male privileges in the private sphere contributes to political stability while undermining stated goals of promoting gender equality in the public sphere, both by restricting women’s opportunities and by reducing their incentives to take on new responsibilities. In response, grassroots activists supporting women are increasingly turning their focus from women to men, seeking to shift norms around masculinity and gender relations within the home.