Changing the Division of Household Work in Conservative and Minority Context: The Case of Arab-Druze Women in Israel

Abstract

This article seeks to understand how Druze women’s employment in nontraditional fields (such as engineering, medicine, and law) shapes gender role division in their nuclear family. Data from 24 interviews with educated Druze women employed in high-quality professions suggests that Druze women who work in these fields succeed in bringing about a change in perceptions and practices regarding gender role division in their households. The interviews revealed three gender patterns: (a) ten women in the current study indicated egalitarian gender role division; (b) six women indicted reversal of gender roles in their home, and (c) eight women described a traditional role division, which required them to sacrifice their career in favor of the family. The choice of Druze women to study nontraditional professions is increasingly recognized and valued in Druze society and its clergy, driving a paradigm shift concerning women’s employment and gender role division in the private sphere.

Keywords:

• Professional
• employment
• division of roles
• family
• Druze
• Women

Disclosure statement

The author declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Notes

1 In Israel, female doctors make up 44% of the expert doctors up to the age of 67, an increase from 37% in 2010, and 48% of the experts up to the age of 45. The percentage of experts among male doctors is higher (55%) than among female doctors (51%), but up to the age of 45, the percentage of experts is higher among female doctors (38%) compared to male doctors (31%) (Ministry of Health 2022). Nevertheless, Druze women only started studying medicine at the beginning of the 1990s due to religious-social reasons. Therefore, in Druze society, the profession of medicine is considered a male profession.

2 I use the terms Arabs, Palestinians, and Druze alternatively to describe Druze women in Israel, since some Druze women define themselves as Israeli Druze, other would say they are Israeli Arabs or Druze Arabs, and some identity as Palestinians.

3 Gender gaps in upper secondary education attainment were almost closed, with more than 80% of women on average across the OECD completing education at this level (OECD 2023).

4 The Golan Heights is the hilly area overlooking the upper Jordan River valley to the west. The Golan Heights area was part of extreme southwestern Syria until 1967, when it came under Israeli military occupation, and in December 1981, Israel unilaterally annexed this territory. Unlike the Druze of northern Israel, who have largely accepted Israeli rule, the Druze living in the Golan Heights have continued to maintain close ties with Syria over the years. Out of the 21,000 Druze who live in four towns in the Israeli Golan, Interior Ministry data show that some 4,300 are Israeli citizens, including some who inherited the status from their parents who previously accepted citizenship.

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Notes on contributors

Ebtesam Barakat

Dr. Ebtesam Barakat, is a lecturer in sociology and gender studies at the Zefat Academic College, Zefat, Israel and at the Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel. Ebtesam Barakat’s learning post-doctoral at Faculty of Sociology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her Ph.D. thesis at Bar-Ilan University’s deal with Druze women in Israel. Her areas of specialization are the political study of gender, the sociology of the family, women in the labor market, Arab-Druze women in Israel, religion and gender.