The scholarship on Middle East politics has disproportionately focused on the dearth of democracy and democratic practices in the region, and the factors that may account for this; few, if any, other regions of the world have been subjected to such relentless scrutiny. Explanations have focused on the ‘inherent incompatibility between Islam and democracy, the ‘resource’ curse, and the geo-politics of the region. In recent years, scholars have added a new variable to the debate drawing correlations between the ‘disadvantaged’ position of women in these societies and the inauspicious prospects for democratization (Fish, 2002; Inglehard & Norris, 2003; Donno &Russett, 2004; Ross, 2008). Drawing on different causal mechanisms, these scholars have argued, that in fact, the ‘problematic’ status of women in these societies has contributed to women’s limited political participation and influence, and to the region’s democratic deficit. The quest to understand the relationship between women’s status and the broader political context, especially relating to regime-types in the region are not new; a body of well developed scholarship has examined these relationships at length. These earlier works established that the relationship between female empowerment, the strength of women’s movements and their political influence, and regime-type was by no means straightforward; the most dramatic expansion in Arab women’s rights took place under the Arab socialist regimes during a key period of authoritarian consolidation between the 1950s and 1970s. These advances in women’s rights and increased female labor participation were often accompanied by loss of autonomy for the women’s movements. Despite the originality and scope of the research questions advanced by these authors, both bodies of literature do not adequately address the breadth of factors which shape the efficacy of women’s movements in these societies. The more recent body of literature which draws correlations between women’s status and democratic performance points to data selectivity bias, easily disputed causal explanations, and is impervious to women’s histories in these regions. The second body of literature, although historically grounded, almost relies exclusively on regime/state strategies to determine changes in the strength of women’s movements and their ability to promote women’s empowerment in particular societies. Examining different cases in the Arab world, this paper illustrates how the potential of women’s movements to advance women’s status in a given society and impact democratic performance is shaped by both structural, as well as strategic factors, and seldom by the socio-economic status of women.