Women Incumbents, Elite Bias, and Voter Response in the 1996 and 1998 U.S. House Elections

Abstract

Recent literature on the role of gender in U.S. House elections shows little evidence of discrimination against women candidates by parties, potential donors, or voters. However, virtually no attention has been paid to the fate of women incumbents. ln this paper, I provide an examination of the types of challenge faced by women incumbents. Based on data for U.S. House incumbents in 1996 and 1998, I report that women incumbents faced better funded challengers than did comparable men, even after we control for first term status and district partisanship. Further, in one of the two years, electoral vulnerability appeared to impact women incumbents more than it did men incumbents.

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