The real biker world isn’t pretty. In my research it was very difficult to ascertain what exactly the women’s “roles” were beyond being hangers-on. But our television show is a fiction and in terms of it’s story telling, I don’t think of the women as being “kept in their place”. No one can claim that Gemma doesn’t do exactly what she wants.

As for my character, she lives with a good deal of fear and apprehension about the violence of the world but she is there by choice. Her eyes are wide open. I see it as a love story and god knows, people do stupid things for love. But she continues to have a successful career as a surgeon and I think her relationship with Jax is that of equals.

Maggie Siff on season 4 and the roles of women