She Is My Manager: Druze Adolescence Attitudes toward Druze Women in Israel

Abstract

The present study examines attitudes of Druze adolescent in Israel toward Druze women. It was conducted through questionnaires containing questions and statements. Some items related to relative's women, others to women in general. Some items expressed attitudes towards men. It tests the hypothesis that demographic variables influence attitudes toward women. Specifically, the study examined the influence of gender, parent's education, parent's profession, number of siblings, and religion on social status, education, and profession. The study assumed that community composition and particularly the percentage of Druze population within a community influences attitudes of Druze Adolescence toward women. The questionnaires were delivered to 100 Druze 12 th graders. They hailed from three villages: "Yarka, Pqein, and Abo Snan". The research findings indicate that there is a difference between the attitude of boys and of girls toward the status of women regarding education. Both groups, however, ranked education as more important than social status and profession. Residence influences attitude toward the women's status regarding education. Conclusions: 1) The Druze religious leaders (men not Women) influence the status of women and attitudes toward women. Influence varies among the villages. 2) The percentage of Druze in the settlement effects women's status. 3) Girls were more interested than boys in advancing attitudes towards women regarding social status, profession and education.

The Education System as a Mechanism for Political Control: The Education System for the Druze in Israel

“…This distortion repeats itself even more bluntly in Falah and Azzam’s (1983) Druze heritage book of collected texts: There is another similarity between the Druze and the Jews. Both peoples share a common fate as minority groups.…”

“…In a book on the Druze holidays (Falah and Azzam, 1979) there are explanations of the holidays of Prophet Jethro, Prophet al-Khadr, Prophet Sabalan and the holiday of ‘Id al-Adha. We see that half of the book is devoted to Prophet Jethro even though ‘Id al-Adha is actually the only Druze holiday that exists.…”

“…The problem, according to the director of the Druze education unit, was that the other textbooks did not address Druze history without which the curriculum could not serve the goal of developing a particularly Druze awareness. Textbooks were replaced with those that could serve this goal (Falah, 1988, p.8). From 1980 to 1985 new texts books on history, Hebrew, Arabic and civics studies were introduced into the Druze schools.…”

“…In a Druze education report from July 18, 1986 we learn that supervisors were now appointed exclusively by the Druze education unit: ‘In addition to the director of the unit there are now 7 general education inspectors, 13 inspectors for specific subjects, 23 educational supervisors and another 9 coordinators for the Scouts, not including the special supervisors appointed by the district’. (Falah, 1987, p.27). That is to say that the supervision became the responsibility of the Druze education unit, leaving the district with responsibility for supervision of specific topics, mainly in the sciences with which the Druze unit had little concern.…”

“…Rather it was a point of pride. In a 1985 report the director of the Druze unit wrote that in 1967 over 50% of the teachers in Druze schools were not Druze, while in the 1985–6 school year the percentage of Druze teachers reached 72% (Falah, 1987, p.27).…”