NEWHALL, Calif. — Diane Trautman remembers a time when “hardened attitudes” existed toward female candidates in Southern California, including the notion “that women don’t have the brain power or the stamina … to really be effective leaders.”

Fast forward to the present.

“We still kind of see that treatment from people locally, but that’s changing as well,” said Trautman, a Democrat who challenged Republican Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon in the 25th District in 1996. Facing an incumbent with a campaign war chest 15 times the size of her own, she lost by 29 points.

This year, the 25th is considered a midterm battleground. And the congressional primary features two viable Democratic women.

While many Democratic women have filed to run for Congress in California, the fields for the party’s top targeted seats have narrowed to only a handful ahead of the June 5 primary. That might be a surprise in a state represented by two female senators and home to the first female speaker of the House.