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Thesis/Dissertation
Date
2025-08
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Political Science
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Once known for being the only country in the world that banned women from driving, 2015 saw a dramatic shift in the Kingdom’s gender policies. The Saudi state went from enforcing restrictive gender laws to preaching messages of women’s empowerment and passing gender reforms that granted Saudi women rights they never dared to dream about. Although these reforms, compared to the gender policies of other states, might not seem noteworthy, they were unexpected for Saudi Arabia. For a country where Wahhabi beliefs have long been central to government and society, these recent gender reforms counter the Kingdom’s traditional stance as a Wahhabi establishment. Additionally, the speed at which the reforms were passed was shocking, as the structure of the Saudi government, where princes claim their own fiefdoms, often results in policy fragmentation, discourages dramatic policy reversals, and makes any state-level policy change extremely difficult. Through counterfactual analysis, my dissertation studies why these gender reforms have been passed. Although these reforms are motivated by both domestic and international pressures, this study focuses on the international reasons behind this liberalization, finding that these reforms are used as tools by the regime to achieve foreign policy objectives.
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