“… but it has its price”: Cycles of alienation and exclusion among pioneering Druze women

Abstract

The positive aspects of women from traditional societies acquiring higher education have been widely documented, while the loss and pain entailed in the process, involving transition and changing gender roles, have usually been ignored. This narrative research explores the experience of Druze women who were the first or among the first, from their villages to study at Israeli universities, focusing on their return home following their studies. Studying in university involved crossing boundaries of gender and culture, leading the women through a path profoundly different from that of their families or childhood friends. Upon return, feelings of pride and accomplishment were accompanied by alienation, hybridity and pain. These aspects, previously overlooked in research literature, are discussed in the present article, adding a new dimension to the understanding of emotional and social facets in the lives of women from so-called ‘traditional’ societies who seek higher education.