A large number of women seem likely to run for office in 2018.

There are strong indications that potential female candidates are being emboldened by the #MeToo movement.

Women are now poised to be an important part of Democrats' effort to retake control of Congress in 2018.



Almost exactly one year after millions took to the streets for the Women's March in response to President Donald Trump's election and the defeat of the first female major-party US presidential nominee, women look poised to make a run en masse for state and national offices.

While established female politicians have made their voices heard amid the #MeToo movement promoting gender equality, Time's Charlotte Alter reports that a potentially record-doubling number of women, 79, are considering running for governor in 2018.

The same report details that likely female Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives have shot up by 350% since 2016.

Alter wrote that since Trump's election, 26,000 women had contacted Emily's List, which trains Democratic candidates who support abortion rights, about starting campaigns, up from just a combined 900 in 2015 and 2016.

Democrats have already put together a string of electoral wins, most notably in Alabama, where black female voters turned out in large numbers to help elect the state's first Democratic senator in decades and shut out Roy Moore, the GOP candidate who stood accused of sexual misconduct with teenagers.

Borrowing from the pink hats worn across the US for the Women's March last year, Alter mused that the grassroots movement of women demanding representation could be called the "pink wave."

While Trump continues to campaign for Republican House candidates, women seem poised to play an increasingly important role in Democrats' effort to retake Congress in 2018.