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This single-topic issue of Mining Review, looking at the role of women in the coal industry, betrays some strikingly dated attitudes. The filmmakers and the women's male bosses appear to take more interest in their female staff's rising hemlines through the 1960s than the quality of their work. This storyline was originally called 'Mini Skirt', before it became entitled simply 'She'. The commentary gives a new twist to a familiar line, declaring: "Men and women have a certain equality, but as George Orwell said 'Some are more equal than others.'" The film's approach encompasses beauty queens and female engineers, together with admiration of the women's team at Grimethorpe Football Club, known as the Black Diamonds. These topics were filmed by different film crews and then edited together. The director of the mini-skirt strand was Stanley Goulder, who had a varied career which encompassed the NCB Film Unit, Hammer Film Productions and feature films such as Naked Evil (1966) and Assignment Redhead (1956). The assistant director was Michael Shoring, who went on a couple of years later to make Man Failure (1971), also notable for its less-than-enlightened attitude towards women. Ros Cranston *This film is included in the BFI DVD compilation 'Portrait of a Miner: The National Coal Board Collection Volume 1'.
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