Gender Dynamics in Congressional Elections

What happens in an electoral environment involving female candidates? Do women face different challenges during the electoral process? Do male candidates pay more attention to women’s issues, or make other strategic and behavioural changes, when opposed by a female candidate? Richard Logan Fox asks these and other questions with compelling evidence which suggests that women candidates are having a profound impact on the electoral process. The author studies the congressional races of 1992 and 1994 in California, in which a record nineteen women were candidates for House seats. He contrasts the experiences of both the male and female candidates, and sheds light on the different challenges women face during political campaigns.