ABSTRACT
To the extent that 1992 can be considered the Year of the Woman, House elections contributed greatly. Competition for the party nomination is likely to be especially fierce in districts with a favorable partisan balance, and, in the primary as in the general election, the best known, most highly regarded candidate is likely to prevail. The primary resource is, of course, money and it is of special importance to a candidate who is not already familiar to voters before the campaign. However, research has shown that voter bias against women candidates competes with other voter cues such as party identification, incumbency status, and candidate name recognition. Although women are far outnumbered, their presence in the eligibility pool has greatly expanded. Nor were a greater proportion of Democratic women incumbents; 24 percent of Democratic and 25 percent of Republican candidates were incumbents.
