CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS AND THE YEAR OF THE WOMAN - STRUCTURAL AND ELITE INFLUENCES ON FEMALE CANDIDACIES

Objective. Several explanations suggest why women are not elected to C ongress as often as men. In this paper, we examine the emergence, poli tical experience, and financing of open seat congressional candidates to determine the role played by gender in the most competitive congres sional elections. Methods. Open seat congressional elections are exami ned at the district level from 1982 to 1992. Multivariate regression m odels are specified to test the impact of gender on open seat outcomes . Results. Our analysis finds no direct influence of candidate gender on congressional election outcomes in the 1982-90 decade or in 1992, ' 'The Year Of the Woman.'' Conclusions. Women who won congressional sea ts did so in the same manner as men: they had elective experience and access to adequate financial resources. In 1992, female candidates ran in greater numbers with ample resources. This trend did not continue into 1994, when female advancement stalled due to a paucity of female candidates and the preponderance of women running as Democrats.