The representation of women in crime films varies. Sometimes they have positions of restricted power, like Angela in the film Angela, and other times they are mantelpiece figures like Kay in The Godfather. Angela represents active participation in the life of crime, however, that is not the only form of support that she and other women can offer. Women can propel criminal machines forward by helping maintain their spouses’ reputations, by not rebelling, and by passing the behavioral expectations of the organizations down to their offspring. Both men and women help ensure that criminal activity succeeds through omission in regards to the law, but usually the voices as well as the actions of those women are muted. For example, even though Angela packs shoeboxes full of drugs and cash, she is not allowed to partake in “business” discussions or do more than basic groundwork for her husband. The same goes for Kay, as she’s seen both physically and verbally barred from the realm of her husband and his men. When Michael lies to Kay about his actions, he is keeping her ignorant, and when the door shuts in front of her, Kay’s view and access to her husband are lost. I have often asked myself, what led those women into the lives of crime? Is it a decision made and accepted during betrothal, or is it something forced upon them like the arranged marriage of Flora as a unit to be exchanged in In Guerra per amore? Also, women are the ones who may exist without a status at the greatest extremes like Maria in Gomorra until she is killed, and they are also left to be the bearers of death and sadness when the actions of their husbands and sons catch up with them. Examples of these figures include Salvatore Giuliano’s mother in Salvatore Giuliano and Don Michele’s wife in La siciliana ribelle. It makes you question if they were expecting the losses or if they chose to not accept the inevitabilities until the end. It seems like an above average mental fortitude is required by women within the crime world with their spouses in constant danger coupled with their inability to protect them. In general, the Mafia women do not seem to be unwillingly dragged into criminal schemes like Beatrice Ocean in Oceans Twelve. However, marriage itself seems to be a sort of compromise or should be where ideally, spouses endure the same gains and losses, but the women within the criminal families we have viewed seem to sacrifice more than what their shares should be. They enter relationships and organizations with losses to their independent actions and thought. Crime itself produces an entirely different universe compared to one without, but the roles of women appear more sacrificial than even the lives lost by their men.
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