Like Coronation Street, Eastenders portrays women as being the dominant ones. The narrative structure invites the viewer's involvement in the personal relationships and family lives of the characters. Eastenders has been described as the BBC's most important piece of fiction. .
The Australian soap Neighbours is quite different and as stated above is more glamorous. It tends to feature primarily physically attractive people and there is also a notable absence of people of colour. Neighbours move away from realism and it challenges the stereotypes presented in most British soaps, as the characters are not typical. They're all attractive, white, middle class. The British audience uses this soap as escapism from their own life as for example housewives are gratified by watching the glamorised lives of the characters in Neighbours. British soaps moves away from these idealised representations and aims to present realism and also the audience relates to the characters as for example British soaps tend to aim mainly at working class and mainly women which means that this audience can relate to the characters that are presented in British soaps. .
Coronation Street is a Granada production, which is, broadcast nationally in the UK on ITV. It was first shown in 1960 and it is the longest- running British TV soap opera. It is watched by about one-third of the British population, by more women than men, by older people, and also by people from lower socio- economic groups. It offers a perspective on northern industrial working- class life. Women in Coronation Street generate most of the action. Soaps do not treat women as comics or victims therefore it is pleasurable for women to watch and follow soaps. Women's role in society has changed in relation to work and many of them hold high paid jobs but soaps tend to easily slip into the olden days. There are several female types that feature in Coronation Street and they are: Grandmother figures: marriageable characters (mature (Betty), sexy (Shelley), women; spinster types; young women).
