Think coal mining and you're likely to imagine a remote industrial landscape where giant machines rumble and sweaty men toil in hard-hats.

But women also play crucial roles in mining towns keeping families together, communities alive, and their men safe from harm.

And nowadays, more women are getting their hands dirty and working alongside the men in the mines themselves.

So what is it like to be a woman in a mining community? Have attitudes changed or is the fairer sex still waiting to get a fair go in this male-dominated world?

David Peetz is a Professor of Industrial Relations at Queensland's Griffith University. He and Dr Georgina Murray, a senior lecturer in Humanities at Griffith, went to these mining towns in Queensland and found out for themselves.

They write about their findings in the latest Griffith Review.