The purpose of this paper is to assess the nature of relative female entrepreneurship in the contemporary Middle East, using data from the seven Middle Eastern countries that participated in the GEM Consortium in 2016 (GEM Global Report, 2016). This data will show that while some of these countries are approaching parity in terms of gender shares in new business start-up’s, in others the rate of female early stage entrepreneurship is a half or even less of the rate for males. Interestingly it is the richer Middle Eastern countries that are closest to parity, even though this includes some of the traditionally more conservative and patriarchal Gulf countries. There are important lessons for the development of policy here – some countries are foregoing substantial opportunities to increase the pool of new female-owned businesses and their subsequent economic development impacts. The data analysis will include statistical tests for significant differences between countries, and will introduce a new methodology for comparing the ratios of sample proportions. The literature on entrepreneurship evidences a continuing debate on the nature of female early-stage entrepreneurial activity, and whether female owned and run businesses grow more slowly and are less profitable than male owned businesses, (see for example Minniti and Naude 2010 & 2011). While GEM data says little about the actual performance of new businesses, that performance may be closely related to the plans and expectations of the entrepreneur, an area that is specifically addressed by GEM. Hence this paper will assess differences in attitudes and expectations by gender, including job creation and international orientation, as well as differences in opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship. The paper will conclude with some lessons for policy development.