Well the thing is with soaps is that it can vary isanely. There are some soaps that are as misogynist as the day is long (General Hospital/Days of Our Lives, I'm looking at you!) And even shows which aren't blatantly misogynist have areas where they are. It's just that certain characters are allowed a great deal of leeway. There are the great "bitches" like Dorian Lord or Erica Kane who can (and do) get away with murder. And Erica's daughter Kendall is allowed to benefit from being one of those "Kane women." And the old Donna Swajeski penned era of Another World (mid 1980s) was a bastion of really strong women across the board on the show. However, soaps today are on a downward slide and you don't get the same sorts of characters that were around during their heyday. But, I do tend to think back in the day the female characters benefited by being in a female dominated genre. Unfortunately, these days most of the headwriters (and ALL the network heads of daytime progamming) are men. And it shows.

And yes, you SHOULD watch Farscape. Farscape has truly wonderful women -- Good, bad and in between. Not only does Aeryn Sun ex-assassin rock, but so does Zaahn ex-anarchist, and Chiana the thief, Sikozou the spy, even Grayza the bitch villainess. In fact the only really awful female character is Jool...but she got killed off. But the core females of Aeryn, Zaahn, and Chi are all quite individual delights.