Soap operas had their origins in the early American radio broadcasting back in the 1920s. It owes the name to the sponsorship of some of the programmes by major soap powder companies. Television soap operas are long- running serials concerned with everyday life. Christine Geraghty notes that the longer they run the more impossible it seems to imagine them ending'. When soaps came to television in the 1950s they tended to be aired during the day in the afternoon, with themes that appealed to those who were likely to be at home; namely mothers, carers and housewives. The early television soaps were, like the daytime radio serials, transmitted five times per week and were aimed at female audiences. This trend continued for a decade, with other soaps appearing in the 1960s. Soaps like Crossroads, which was viewed on ITV and another that followed among others was Coronation Street, which is the longest -running British TV soap that really proved the popularity of the genre. In the 1980s Channel Four, which was a new channel, aired Brookside. In the 1970s British soaps had a different atmosphere compared to American and Australian soaps. British soaps were real' and gritty, about normal' everyday issues and characters, whereas American soaps took place in glamorous locations and dealt with out of the ordinary events and tended to deal with wealthy families. It has been argued that soap operas and its themes tend to appeal to women, because it always deals with love, personal relationships and family life, however over the past decade soaps have tried extending its themes to deal with wider social issues. I will use two main texts in order to explore why soaps tend to attract a more female audience and how women's representation in soaps affects this audience. These two texts are Eastenders' and Coronation Street'. .
Arguably the time when soaps are viewed on television is a big contribution to the sorts of audience it attracts.