In his inaugural speech at the Fourth National Congress of the state-run women’s organization, the National Union of Tunisian Women (NUTW), on “Women and Social Evolution,” President Habib Bourguiba made clear a number of premises of his position on women’s rights. First, the coupling of women with “evolution,” indicated the centrality of women to narratives of post-colonial Tunisian modernity and the linear progress of the nation, it also emphasized that women’s role was “social” as opposed to political or economic. Second, Bourguiba’s patronage of the NUTW embodied the patriarchal framework (if not also its limitations) of Bourguiba’s approach to women, the family, and gender roles. Yet this tells only one part of the story. If the Tunisian regime manipulated the ‘woman question’ in order to present a secular, modern, and Westernized visage to international audiences, women themselves were crucial to its dissemination. In addition to its participation in international organizations, the circulation of presidential discourses, and the distribution of glossy publications by various state agencies, Tunisian women actively promoted an association between their personal success and the progress of their nation. Though the women who benefited from state patronage are hardly representative of the variety and complexity of women’s lives in post-colonial Tunisia, as they belong primarily to urban, educated, and secular-oriented middle-class, they remain significant. This paper focuses on the nationalist narrative of progress in a way that recognizes women’s agency, leaving room for disparate goals. It examines women's writings alongside official sources to complicate the picture of collaboration versus resistance by examining how women advocated from within the state’s hegemonic institutions.