IN JULY of 1984, Walter Mondale, the Democratic presidential nominee, chose Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate. It was the first time in American history that a major party had nominated a woman for vice-president. In her acceptance speech, Ms Ferraro said that “American history is about doors being open…as long as you’re willing to earn it.” Three decades later, those doors are being knocked off their hinges. Excluding incumbents running for re-election, fully half of the candidates Democrats have nominated for the House of Representatives this year are women—an increase of 23 percentage points over the share in 2016.

In the wake of Hillary Clinton’s defeat in the presidential election of 2016, many Democratic pundits feared that lingering sexism among American voters would continue to put female candidates at a disadvantage. The party’s voters, however, appear to have reached the opposite conclusion. Super-charged both by the election of Mr Trump, who has been recorded boasting about groping women, and the #MeToo movement protesting against sexual harassment in the workplace, female respondents to opinion polls have turned against Republicans in record proportions. The best antidote, the Democratic electorate seems to believe, is to put women on the general-election ballot: with all other factors held constant, being female was one of the strongest predictors of winning a Democratic House nomination in 2018 (see article).

Nonetheless, it would be a stretch to call 2018 a new “Year of the Woman” without addressing the other side of the aisle. Among Republicans, the share of non-incumbent nominees this year that are women is a paltry 18%, barely higher than the proportion registered in 2004. In part, this discrepancy may reflect a greater propensity for female candidates to prioritise issues that disproportionately affect women, such as access to contraception and the inclusion of maternity coverage in health-insurance plans. The Democratic party, with its higher concentration of women than the Republican party, is more inclined towards female candidates. However, it also stems from differences of opinion over whether electing more women is a goal in and of itself. A report from the Pew Research Centre released this month found that 79% of Democrats but just 33% of Republicans believe that there are “too few women in high political offices”.