This article presents the results of a study on the influence of social environment on the beliefs, knowledge and behaviours related to health and illness in a group of elderly French-speaking women living in the urban area of Moncton, New Brunswick. The purpose of the study was to identify social representations of health by three groups of women belonging to the working class, the middle class and the local elite, and thus to introduce the concept of class culture and its incidence on health-related attitudes and behaviours. Based on the results of the study, a certain number of ideas were identified that were shared by all informants concerning health and illness, and some elements of a social representation of health emerged that were specific to working class and to middle class women, respectively. The results did not enable identification of constituents of a social representation of health that were specific to women from the elite. Overall, for elderly women from the working class, health and illness are explained in terms of fate, of good or bad luck, of work and of lifestyle. For elderly women from the middle class, explanations of health and illness are more closely related to personal will and responsibility. As for the women from the elite, their views were more focused on the contrast between the world as it was in the past and the world as it is currently. This study offers a direct contribution to a better understanding of diversity due to class membership in the field of social gerontology and of its impact on social intervention and health care.