The 2011 Arab uprisings were initially heralded as a catalyst for advancing women’s rights in the Middle East and North Africa. Yet “spring” soon turned to winter for women as the hope of improvements in gender equality faded. Demands by the international community that Arab countries do more to conform with the norms of human rights have likely factored into the calculations of Arab regimes taking action to better include women in the political process. Simultaneously, however, increasing internal agitation by the public provided an equally important pressure. It is important to re-evaluate the strategies for advancing women’s rights and to carefully assess what has and has not been effective. This paper takes seriously scholars who argue that Arab women’s rights have been instrumentalized as a way of legitimizing the interests of existing power structures. These strategies of state feminism—the top-down implementation of pro-women policies using governmental power—have produced important gains in women’s rights in many Arab countries, yet these gains often have a formal and hollow character. Frequently, this approach has led to an instrumentalization of women’s concerns by regimes to performatively demonstrate modernization and extract funding from Western donors. The association of feminist struggles with external political influences and elite authority has in turn reinforced populist backlashes against women’s rights. I propose a theoretical framework to explain and compare consequences associated with “top-down” approaches and grassroots democratic efforts to enhance women’s status and participation. While top-down approaches can be vital in setting standards and providing women with the requisite experience and networks to successfully participate in democratic governance, such appointments are only as stable as the regimes that implement them. In comparison, the election of women to positions of power indicates a more profound societal buy-in linked to a more widely distributed and secure female participation Without dismissing the value of the advances that women have made in recent decades through the use of a top-down approach, it is important not to overestimate the gains represented by these political appointments. Not only have these gains failed to “trickle down”, but they may also contribute to active resentment by linking feminism to upper-class interests. These reforms may also sometime lend a veneer of falseness to women’s advocacy when perceived as regime propaganda.