Women are at the heart of soaps and Emmerdale is no exception.

But just lately we’ve been thinking that the soap that brought us Annie Sugden, Kim Tate, Val Pollard and Charity Dingle has been ignoring that heritage.

This year’s been a tough one for the women of Emmerdale. There have been a lot of female characters given the boot, and a lot of new male characters strolling into the village.

Frankly it’s beginning to get on our nerves.

Emmerdale women are dying!

In the last few months, we’ve had the deaths of Leyla, Suzy and Amy. Gail, Wendy, Brenda and Ella have left for good, and Cathy’s gone for while.

But we’ve welcomed back Joe and Robert. Plus Lewis, Dylan and Kammy have all arrived.

And it’s been announced that former EastEnders star Joe Absolom is joining the show in a dark storyline involving April Windsor.

Is it just us, or is it all looking a bit unbalanced?

Soaps need women

It may be a cliche but it’s true: soaps are all about the women. They’re at their best when the women are up front and central.

Just think of some of the best storylines recently. Ruby’s abuse reveal was and continues to be amazing. Belle’s torment at the hands of husband Tom was a hard watch but so, so good.

Further back, the love triangle between Chas, Debbie and serial killer Cameron was thrilling. Meena Jutla was shockingly, brilliantly bad. Laurel’s alcoholism, Zoe Tate’s psychosis, Charity facing her abuser, Baby Grace’s death were all great storylines with a female focus.

Of course there’s space for the men, too. Aaron also faced his childhood abuser, we love Robron and we’re delighted Robert’s back. Cain’s always good value. Marlon’s stroke was very well done.

But it’s just there’s so many of them!

We’re missing Leyla, Gail and Ella!

We were annoyed when Leyla, Amy and Suzy were all killed off in one fell swoop. Ella was hard to like but she was interesting and brought something different to the soap. Gail had loads of potential but was cast aside – and already we’re missing her quirky humour which brought some light in the darkness.

We admit we don’t miss Wendy so much, but when all these women leaving is seen together it does seem to be a bit of a trend.

A trend we’re really not on board with!

What’s the solution to Emmerdale’s women problem?

So what’s to be done? Sadly, there’s no coming back for the three women who died in the limo crash, and we’re not in a hurry for Wendy to return.

But we’d love to see more women show up in the village. And we’re craving more female friendships.

Victoria, Belle, Gabby and Kerry all function in a bit of a vacuum. Poor Claudette could do with a pal or two – more older women in general would be great to see. We miss the glory days of Betty, Edna and Pearl!

It was fun when Rhona and Mandy were becoming friends – could we have more of that?

In short, we’d love to see less of the men trying to outdo one another (we almost died of boredom during Kammy and Jacob’s ridiculous race preparation) and more of the women who are the heart of Emmerdale.