I present two arguments for hypothesizing that women might now have an
edge over men in open-seat primaries. First, female candidates might
be advantaged by a greater salience of women's issues to proponents th
an opponents of those issues. Second, female candidates might be advan
taged by a greater desire for descriptive representation among women t
han among men. However, evidence from the 1992 and 1994 primaries is a
ble to confirm that women consistently had a substantial advantage ove
r men only in races with a high ratio of men to women contesting for t
he nomination. Women had little or no advantage in races with relative
ly equal numbers of men and women competing. That evidence suggests (a
) that the sex of a candidate can be a relevant voting cue for signifi
cant blocs of voters (at least when it is highlighted by having a lone
woman face several men), but (b) the pro-women and pro-men blocs tend
to be fairly evenly balanced.