title: The Substantive Representation of Women in Oman
Creators: name: Al Lawati, Nawra Maqbool Mohsin
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2026

description: This thesis analyses the substantive representation of women (SRW) in Oman, and aims to answer the question: is there space for SRW in a context of low descriptive representation, limited legislative power in the elected parliament, strong prevalence of conservative gender norms and a patriarchal social structure? Who acts for women in Oman? How do they attempt to do so? What sites do they operate from? And why do they do it? 
 
While the literature has long focused on how SRW is related to women’s descriptive representation, much less attention has been paid to the process of SRW itself. Research on SRW has made great progress in recent years, but there are still important gaps in our knowledge. First, most research on SRW focuses on elected parliaments, even though recent scholarship suggests SRW can also occur in other sites, such as civil society organizations, social movements, women policy machineries, and cabinets. Second, many scholars agree that SRW is context dependent, but research on SRW has overwhelmingly focused on democracies, with little attention being paid to closed autocratic regimes, and in particular those in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region. Third, SRW is a process, so its study should not be limited to legislative changes and final outcomes, but also include multiple acts which may or may not immediately translate into legislation. To fill these gaps, this thesis examines SRW in Oman across different sites of representation: the lower elected parliament Majlis A’Shura, the upper appointed parliament Majlis A’Dawla, and civil society sites that include the state-sponsored Omani Women’s Associations and informal networks of self-appointed representatives as well as the Royal Family. The research shows that, despite multiple existing obstacles, SRW does occur in Oman in different ways and through a variety of sites. 

Contrary to the common view that female parliamentarians in the MENA region have no room or willingness to advance women’s issues, female members of the elected and appointed parliaments in Oman actively took on women’s issues and, at times, were able to influence legislation to advance women’s interests despite their limited descriptive representation and other social and institutional barriers. Female MPs worked together on women’s issues, and tried to advance women’s interests by using a variety of patriarchal bargain strategies: they forged alliances with supportive male MPs to present their cases; they appealed directly to the state by focusing on abiding by international treaties, such as CEDAW and the Convention of the Rights of the Child; and they framed their issues in a manner that suits the patriarchal social structure by focusing on the family and the role of women as mothers, wives and sisters. Across civil society sites, SRW was limited but not non-existent. Actors from Omani Women’s Associations (OWAs) worked actively to promote women’s economic position, and provided psychological counselling and legal awareness to women.
 
Despite the close ties between OWAs and the state, only a few actors strategized on these links to lobby for legislative changes. Other civil society actors who worked through informal networks faced more obstacles in their pursuit of SRW, but were able to act for women in areas of sports, economic empowerment and domestic violence, and achieved some goals when they partnered with state institutions or elites such as the Royal Family. Although female Royal Family members are mainly approached by women for individual requests rather legislative changes, partnering with them was found to be a potential, but underutilised, strategic tool for actors involved in SRW.

Overall, this research contributes to the advancement of scholarship on women’s substantive representation by presenting how women, in autocracies contexts dominated by conservative gender norms and patriarchal social structures, can substantively act for women’s interests.