Social and Cultural Barriers to Rural Women's Higher Education Participation

Abstract

Rural women in Indonesia continue to participate in higher education at markedly lower rates than their urban counterparts, yet the social and cultural mechanisms underlying this gap remain insufficiently understood at the local level. This study analyzed the social and cultural barriers shaping rural women's decisions to pursue higher education in Sungai Atang Village, Dharmasraya Regency, West Sumatra Province, and sought to identify strategies for improving their participation. A qualitative case study design was employed, with data collected between February and May 2026 from ten women informants purposively selected to represent contrasting educational trajectories, using semi-structured interviews, observation, and documentation, and analyzed through thematic analysis. The findings show that women's educational decisions were shaped by an interaction of economic limitation, family support, access to information, and community expectation, compounded by patriarchal decision-making authority, gender stereotyping, restricted mobility, and marriage expectation. Notably, social scrutiny of women's employment status was reported even by an informant who had already completed higher education, indicating that such pressure extends beyond the decision to enroll. These findings suggest that improving participation requires interventions addressing material and normative conditions together, rather than financial assistance alone, that also consider the social environment women navigate after graduation. The study contributes a context-specific, integrated account of how these economic, familial, and cultural barriers interact within a single rural Indonesian community.