Gender Stereotypes in Soaps

In Traditional Soaps we would always have at least one Matriarchs:

Eastenders - Peggy Mitchell

Peggy mitchell was portrayed as a matriarch as she was the landlady at the local pub on albert square. She is given a lot of power even though she's female and everybody knows exactly who she is. This is deliberately done to allow women to feel satisfied that it isn't always the men who are dominant.

Coronation Street - Tracy Barlow

This is a traditional convention in soaps and there dominant actions help to link storylines together. For example they may gossip and then create controversy because of there dominance creating a chain reaction.

Modern soaps use more Patriarchs:

Hollyoaks - Brendan Brady



He is a dominant male and his actions affect all the characters around him. The director will look for him to drive the narratives and link different stories together. He is looked at as being a powerful character and other characters will either shy away or try to create a good relationship with him.

Eastenders - Ian Beale



He is a weaker character and although he is a businessman and head of a family he seems to be quite vulnerable and weak when it comes to conflicts. So Eastenders is trying to challenge the major gender stereotypes.