<![CDATA[Gendered educational exclusion persists in rural and customary communities where household resource allocation, gender norms, and social authority intersect to shape women’s educational opportunities. While extant scholarship has identified poverty, domestic labor, mobility constraints, and early marriage as salient barriers, these factors are frequently examined in isolation. This compartmentalization limits our understanding of how these determinants dynamically interact across women’s educational trajectories. This study examines how patriarchal norms embedded in household and community relations shape women’s educational exclusion in Rembitan Village, Central Lombok, Indonesia. Using a qualitative case-study design, data were collected from April to May 2025 across six hamlets. Participants comprised nine women who experienced school discontinuation, non-progression to higher education, or exclusion from formal schooling, and ten supporting informants representing customary, community, family, educational, and village perspectives. Data were analyzed using abductive thematic analysis combining inductive coding with theoretically informed interpretation. The findings reveal four interconnected mechanisms: gendered educational investment, regulation of women’s educational mobility, unequal domestic and economic labor burdens, and male-dominated decision-making concerning education and marriage. Economic constraints operated across these mechanisms rather than as a gender-neutral barrier. The study conceptualizes educational exclusion as a cumulative and relational process through which material disadvantage becomes gendered within household power relations. The findings suggest that interventions should extend beyond financial assistance to address unequal educational investment, mobility constraints, gendered labor distribution, family decision-making, and opportunities for women to continue or resume education.]]>
