Class and consciousness: The American farmer's daughter

The current focus of empirical analysis of class and class consciousness on the intersecting processes of capitalist relations, historically constituted regional frameworks, and the contexts of lived experiences and understandings (Adams and Gorton 2006; Durrenberger and Erem 1997; Heyman 2007) provides a fruitful framework for examining conceptions of class consciousness for young farm women in American agriculture. Diverse regional commodity markets and transnational dynamics intersect with race, religion, ethnicity, immigration status, and the cultural values that defined gendered divisions of farm family labor to circumscribe young farm women's social and economic realities as well as consciousness of their ability to negotiate opportunities.