The Role of Kuwaiti Women’s Organizations in Enhancing Social Capital and Promoting Women’s Rights: A Comparative Historical Research

The most effective organization to mobilize support to expand the political rights of Kuwaiti women is the “Women’s Cultural and Social Society” (WCSS). Resource mobilization and political process theories of movement mobilization apply to the WCSS because of their access to resources and networks of elite support. However, theoretical models, built from Western movements, fail to consider the distinct cultural role of social capital accessed through kinship in Kuwait. Nor do they explain the gendered political, economic and cultural processes through which some women, by contrast, can mobilize movement organizations in non-western countries. In this paper, the researcher asks: How does the mobilization of the WCSS expand women’s political rights in Kuwait? Can resource mobilization or political process theories adequately explain the mobilization of the WCSS? The researcher answers these questions through the comparative historical perspective by tracing WCSS's historical trajectory of mobilization to highlight problems with Western models of movement mobilization devoid of gendered, historical and cultural/political analysis specific to non-western nations. The study analyzed Kuwaiti women's rights from 1963 to 2023, using the historical approach and secondary sources such as state documents, WCSS meeting minutes, newsletters, and correspondence. The study findings revealed that WCSS in Kuwait, fighting for women's rights from 1963 to 2023, was influenced by historical factors like oil discovery, British colonization, and the Kuwaiti Constitution.