Bloodless Coup

Not unheard of is the concept that if it doesn't significantly advance women's rights, something doesn't really advance democracy.

At first glance, it looks like a contrived argument to downplay the awfulness of cultural Islam. Probably doesn't hurt the writer's chances of tenure to get a few anti-capitalist and greenie swats in there, either.

I would need a lot of convincing to find that an adult line of argument.

Actually there's a ton of lit out there on the problems created by state's having large oil reserves. It's pretty clearly tied to lower levels of political freedom (for both women and men), and us generally associated with a host of political phenomena that Americans usually consider to be "bad".

The lit that's out there that throws culture/religion into the mix suggests Islam isn't necessarily the key. Danilea Donno and Bruce Russett (in "Islam, Authoritarianism, and Female Empowerment What Are the Linkages?" World Politics, 56,4:582-607) found that women's rights are worse in the Muslim world, but more than that they are particularly worse in the Middle East. Lower status/rights for women appears to be intensifed by Arab culture. Perhaps surprisingly, when those variables are thrown into the mix, women's rights aren't found to have an independent influence on democracy. On the whole study is pretty depressing as it implies that improving the democratic institutions of those states won't greatly improve the status of women in those countries, nor would improving the status of women alone lead to more democracy.

Though of course to the degree this is an Islamic effect, it's not the only religion that limits the place of women in society. Countries with large Catholic populations feature a lower level of economic activity by women.