ABSTRACT
This chapter attends to the criticisms that have been levelled at the literature on rurality, change and class by examining the influence of gender in changing class compositions and identities in the rural and exploring differences within class groups and indeed shifts across class categories. In reporting on data from a study of the Ravensthorpe Shire in Western Australia the chapter has utilized contemporary cultural class theory to investigate class relations and rurality. The limited contemporary attention that has been afforded to class is a theme taken up by Panelli in reviewing the literature on studies of rural communities, and particularly gendered studies of rural communities. Indicative of the softness and fragility of the mining man compared to the farming man was, according to two agricultural women, the high priority BHP Billiton gave to workplace health and safety.
