On cross‐cultural bridges and gaps: identity transitions among trailblazing Druze women

The emotional conflicts and evolving Identity of the first Druze women who turned to study in Israeli universities is explored in this paper. While the benefits of higher education are widely discussed, this article wishes to focus on the different, more complex effects of education on the lives and identities of women. The study examines the complex identity patterns of these pioneering women after returning to their villages on completing their studies – influenced by their uniqueness as the first women in their community to achieve academic degrees and by the intercultural transitions they experienced along the way. The narrative identity and emotional processes are derived through interview analysis of 34 first Druze women that entered universities. The findings are viewed in light of modern and postmodern psychological theories of identity discussing lacunæs in western identity theories that cannot entirely account for certain aspects of interviewees’ identities.