ABSTRACT
This chapter examines class relations between farming women. It begins with an overview of the academic discourse on social class and farming. The chapter demonstrates that social class is, and has been understood to be, an integral part of rural farm life, but at the same time, what exactly social class means and how it is applied remains contested within agricultural studies. Liberal sociologists frame these variations in farming practices in socio-economic terms and thus rank farms from smallest to largest, whereas Marxist sociologists emphasize how the social relations of production change as farms expand beyond the capacity of the family labour supply. Jones has argued that it is necessary for social scientists to recognize the terms in which social participants, the actual actors in the social activities being studied, understand themselves. The Marxist schema of class is easily mapped onto the farm women's discourse, since different classes are understood to different social goals and purposes for engaging in economic activity.
