Women play a complex role in Robert Orsi's Madonna on 115th Street, at times wielding power and at others wielding less power than men. In Italian Harlem, when describing a “domus,” the woman in the center is the one actually described. A domus, according to Emmanuel LeRoy Ladurie, “constitute[s] a formidable reservoir of power and counter-power which could resist with some success the external powers which surround it”. Italian women in Harlem had no direct power over the outside world, but they could use their sphere of influence to make their mark. The power available to the women of Italian Harlem is conferred on them by the matriarchal society modeled by the Church. “Italian Harlem was a private matriarchy. Married women and their children were the source of power and authority in the domus and in the intimate, private affairs of people's lives; they were the hidden center of society centered on the domus, the source of blood that united the members of the domus and connected it to the rest of the community. » Mothers are the guardians of an Italian home. They are in charge of everyone's well-being and the domus. It is rare for Italian mothers to have little power over family life. To exercise this power over the family, mothers had to rely on the male family to carry out orders. Additionally, women controlled the public images of their families, dictating what their children wore and who they spent their time with. Naturally, problems arise when one person claims to control everyone's home life. During “temporary breakdowns in family life during periods of illness and unemployment,” women had to take on a more important role as protector. The ...... middle of paper ...... royal society. Without influence in her home, a culturally trapped woman has no power in the outside world. “His power faded as his community disappeared; As Italians left Harlem and subsequent generations believed they were integrating into the mainstream of American economic and social life, the intimate connection between the Madonna and the place, a place made sacred by her presence, was severed. With the disappearance of its power, the domus disappears. Works cited Ladurie, Emmanuel LeRoy. Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error (New York: Vintage Books, 1979), pp. 352-53Orsi, Robert A. The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, 1880-1950. New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 2010. Print. pp. 131Orsi, Robert A. pp. 206Orsi, Robert A. pp. 209Orsi, Robert A. pp. 215Orsi, Robert A. pp.. 72