What explains the variation in women’s election to lower houses of parliament (or similar institutions) in Muslim majority states worldwide? I test several theoretical perspectives found in the general literature on women’s representation, as well as in the literatures from predominantly Muslim regions, in order to explain the percentages of women legislators in lower houses, which ranges from 0 to 31%. I consider theories of modernization (Norris and Inglehart, 2004; Lipset, Seong and Torres, 1993), petroleum rent dependence (Ross, 2008), cultural norms about women’s participation in the public sphere (Rizzo, Abdel-Latif, and Meyer, 2007), the institutionalization of Islamic law in the state (Spierings, Smits and Verloo, 2009), the role of civil society groups and women’s organizations in promoting women’s political activism (Moghadam, 2009; Kandiyoti, 2007; Sadiqi, 2006), and political structural factors (Matland, 1998), such as regime type, electoral system type, and the presence or absence of quotas guaranteeing women’s representation (Tripp and Kang, 2008; Dahlerup, 2006). In order to test these theoretical perspectives, multivariate regression analysis is employed to gauge the relative importance of measures derived from data published by internationally reputable organizations, such as The World Bank. In line with the general literature, I find that political structural factors are most important in explaining women’s election, particularly in countries with quotas. Even in countries without quotas electoral system type (i.e., proportional representation), performs well in explaining much of the variance in women’s election. In countries without quotas, however, general levels of development, such as women’s literacy and urbanization are better predictors of women’s election than political factors (but interestingly, per capita GDP and political freedom are negatively associated). In contrast to other studies, oil rent dependence and predominant Arab ethnicity are not found to be negative predictors of women’s election. The constellation of political factors, as well as their interactions with their contexts are undertheorized and researched in countries of the global South, and particularly in the Muslim world. I make a contribution toward specifying general conditions that facilitate women’s election in 50 Muslim majority states. While this project has not yet addressed the question of whether women’s descriptive representation translates into their substantive representation (i.e., whether women legislators work to introduce and pass legislation that will make positive impacts on women’s lives), it establishes an important baseline from which to gauge progress in women’s political representation in Muslim majority societies, and moves the discussion beyond simplistic “civilizational” arguments.