At critical junctures over the past two decades, rulers in monarchies have been more likely than rulers in republics to support change that expand female citizenship. In Morocco and Kuwait, paradigmatic reforms in 2004 enabled women to divorce. In 2005, Kuwaiti women were enfranchised, and in Morocco, the patriarchal nationality law was amended in 2007 allowing women to confer nationality to their children. Family courts were established in 2004 in Morocco, and in 2015 in Kuwait. Family courts introduced new administrative procedures that address vulnerable women’s financial and security needs. In 2018, Morocco legislated a first-time protection law against domestic violence, while Kuwait passed a similar law in 2020. Amidst the Covid 19 pandemic, Kuwaiti authorities appointed eight women judges for the first time. What are the driving forces behind change that strengthen women’s de jure civil, political and economic rights in Morocco and Kuwait (as well as in Jordan and other Gulf monarchies) since the turn of the millennium? Notably, in comparison, MENA republics in the Levant and in the Gulf have experienced recurrent set-backs and violent upheavals when it comes to societal pressures that opt to expand female citizenship in family law, criminal law and nationality law. Three factors shed light on the remarkable expansion of female citizenship in Morocco and Kuwait amidst strengthened authoritarian rule. First, monarchies engage in state feminist projects envisioned by Helga Hernes who coined the term in 1987. She described the transformation of women’s dependence on a husband –the patriarch at home– to reliance on the state upon which women became financially dependent as salaried public employees, and as receivers of public services. The introduction of unilateral divorce for women in all MENA monarchies (except Oman) reflect women’s reliance on state power to ensure basic civic rights. Second, monarchies are centralising their rule by decreeing soft power legal reforms, such as the introduction of family courts along with administrative measures that reorganise the dispersion of welfare. Third, demos constellations of citizens, noncitizens and stateless persons impact reforms that target female citizens in Kuwait and the other Gulf monarchies. Expanding women’s legal capacity in state laws on a par with strengthened authoritarian rule can be seen as political concessions to female citizens that increase the legitimacy of monarchs and consolidate authoritarian rule.