Kuwait, a small city-state on the Persian–Arabian Gulf, has undergone massivepolitical, economic, and social development throughout the 20th century. In spite of this, Kuwaitirulers continue to cherish what is perhaps an impossible dream: that Kuwait can be simultaneouslya “developed” country and a “traditional” tribally organized socialformation run by an autocratic ruler. This dream is echoed in equally ambivalent pronouncementsand policies regarding women, not only by representatives of the state but also by Kuwaiticitizens. Should Kuwaiti women stand side by side with men in public life as half of a modernsociety, or should they be secluded, subjected by, and submissive to the men in their lives as local“tradition” demands? In this essay I argue that these two ambivalences are linked.Democratization of Kuwaiti political life has proceeded in fits and starts that parallel the unevenprogress of democratization of gender relations in Kuwait. Perhaps in consequence, the politics ofboth kinds of democratization have become more closely linked.