I just met and had lengthy discussion with lady who lived in Kuwait
for a couple of years; a Filipino who worked in secretarial pool. Her
story of conditions generally for local Kuwaiti women  contrasts 
significantly with what another 10 year resident of Saudi Arabia tells
me about conditions there for women. The man who lived in Saudi Arabia
painted a picture of subservience, little freedom,  not allowed to
drive car and now apparently (of late) not allowed to own a mobile
telephone even, and other restrictive conditions generally

 The lady I had lunch with only a few hours back talked of rich ladies
 able to travel far and wide for shopping sprees, ladies who often 
enjoy and get away with a husband for security and home life but a
boyfriend on the side as well; even extending this to freely flirting
with strangers, plenty of idle time with little work to do and maids
to take up a lot of the work involved in child-raising/ looking after
babies etc.  Still another lady  had a different story for women in
Dubai with one observation that stood out in my mind being that women
there would  rarely  interact with strangers or people from oversaes,
( quite different to what ex-Kuwaiti worker told me about women there)
actually turning their eyes well away when approached or when walking
towards. She did say that they travel internationaly quite freely
however

 My question is "Can we safely assume that conditions and freedoms
generally for women in the various gulf states and surrounding
countries of similar  culture are quite different from state to state
and any proper analysis would clearly show this to be the case? Is
there any  written comparisons available??

Dear John, 

That would be perfectly true. If you need more anecdotal evidence,
here's a question I've answered about MBAs in the Gulf States and
Saudi Arabia:
"Full time MBA in uae"
<http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=358520>. The answer
itself is not of interest (probably) to you, but it is evident that
while Saudi institutions offer only separate education, many
Gulf-based institutions offer co-ed opportunities.

Regarding Kuwait, as you might have known, the Kuwaiti society
underwent a major crisis following the occupation by Iraqi forces. The
crisis in the society had effect on several issues; the fact that many
Kuwaitis had to find refuge in the West for a while exposed them to
democracy on a daily basis. After the war, the principality became
much more open, including regarding women's rights, where there had
been a major discussion on granting women voting rights (it seems to
us Westerns as normal reality, but it is of course a revolution in
that area). You can read more about it here:

Radio Netherlands "The Struggle for Women?s Rights in Kuwait" (2001)
<http://www.rnw.nl/hotspots/html/kuwait010426.html> 

Kuwait Information Office, Kuwaiti Women 
<http://www.kuwait-info.org/women.html> - this report, despite being
an official government report, is surprisingly well-balanced.

DOUGLAS JEHL, 1999. "Vote on Women's Rights Shows Deep Rift in Kuwait
Society", originally appeared on NYT, December 20, 1999, available on
the Cornell University website
<http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/kuwmn2.htm>

It is not, just to clarify, that Kuwait has in fact democratised. In
fact, there is a lot of criticism, by human rights organisations, on
Kuwait, including on the issue of women's rights. However, all is
relative, as you'll see later.

Human Rights Watch has written a report titled "Promises Betrayed" on
the fact that the country has not, in fact democratised, after 1991:
Human Rights Watch, October 2000. PROMISES BETRAYED 
<http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/kuwait/> 

About women's rights in general, you'll find their reports interesting: 
Human Rights Watch, Women's Rights
<http://www.hrw.org/women/> 

As to what you are looking for, a very good comparative source, of the
type you're looking for, is the report "Gulf Women Pushing Ahead on
Education, Vote" from Women e-News. The report clearly shows that
there are differences between the countries, with the most "equal"
being Bahrain, and the least ones, the UAE and Saudi Arabia (Dubai, to
whom you referred to earlier, is part of the UAE).
Nada El Sawy, 13 June 2004 "Gulf Women Pushing Ahead on Education,
Vote" <http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/1869/context/cover/>.

Ebtisam Al Kitbi also reported, for the Carnegie Endowment, the
findings on women's rights in comparative perspective, in the Gulf
Region:
Ebtisam Al Kitbi, "Women's Political Status in the GCC States",
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, July 2004
<http://www.ceip.org/files/Publications/ARB-7-19-04.asp?p=1&from=pubdate#GCC

The Endowment also provides a chart that compares political rights of
women in the Arab world (incl. these countries):
Statistics on Women in Politics in the Arab World
<http://www.ceip.org/files/pdf/arb-07-04-tableone.pdf> 

In another article, it says that "Sultan Qaboos of Oman has publicly
advocated a greater role for women in both the public and private
sectors. [...]  the Sultan appointed four women to the 41-member
Council of State. Men and women are allowed to vote and run for office
but the government chooses the electorate." (SOURCE: Sanjay Upadhyay,
"Women's Rights Debate Defined By Equality and Economics", 25 November
1999, Hartford Seminary,
<http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/180.html>). Upadhyay's
article provides a pretty good comparison of women's rights
(practically and legally) in the Gulf region.

Another source, comparing only between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and
adding Jordan, is the Jewish Virtual Library: Women's Rights in the
Arab World (1999)
<http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/arabs/arabwomen.html> 

You general or anecdotal impression is thus correct. There is
difference between Gulf societies and states. I hope this answered
your question. Please contact me if you need any clarification on this
answer before you rate it.

Search terms: 
"women's rights" [countries' names]
"women's rights" "gulf region"
"women's rights" "persian gulf"
women, emancipation, "persian gulf"

Well PG you certainly covred many of the aspects to the question
either via your own text or that provided by the links, thanks again. 
I have just had the chance to run through some of the  material at the
links.