How the women of 'The Sopranos' navigated a world not meant for them to thrive.

Tony and Adriana

Gender dynamics, domestic abuse, the Madonna-whore complex, and the complicit woman’s reconciliation between financial comfort and moral ruin: David Chase’s masterful constellation of psychopaths and gangsters may have seemed centred on violence and masculinity, but there's a completeness and a complexity to The Sopranos’s female stories which is often overlooked.

Launching in 1999, and focusing on an Italian-American crime family out in the far reaches of suburban New Jersey, a decent summary of the character’s attitudes towards women could be said to occur in an episode from the show’s first series, when Tony Soprano’s teenage daughter Meadow whines, “It’s the 90s. Parents talk about sex with their kids,” and Tony succinctly corrects her by pointing out the window and shouting “Out there it’s the 90s. In this house, it’s 1954."

He’s not far wrong. In the cosseted universe of well-to-do New Jersey housewives and their criminal husbands, family values remain staunchly in the past. These men have the run of the world, while its women cook baked ziti and buy Jimmy Choos. However, in the stories of female characters fighting for their own scraps of power, the nuance of The Sopranos’s women is palpable: extending from major figures like Tony’s therapist, Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), to minor characters like Svetlana, the cousin of Tony’s mistress.

Even the most ostensibly disposable women are memorable and present a blunt depiction of Tony and co.’s backwards sexual politics. These are apparent in a seemingly never-ending string of mistresses known as cumares, or ‘goomahs’. For Tony, these include the Eastern European model Irina and the stubborn-minded, impossibly sad Gloria Trillo (Annabella Sciorra). Each is distinctive and thoughtfully sketched, with their own private lives and backstories. Even the slew of strippers who work at the Bada Bing strip club -- a key hangout for Tony’s crew -- are given their own subtle attention, whether through internecine co-worker arguments or various entanglements with dangerous made men.

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