World War II, she proudly represented her nation
in competition and as President George H. W.
Bush’s special presidential delegate to the Summer
Olympics in 1992, flying on Air Force One.
Further Reading
Franks, Joel S.Crossing Sidelines, Crossing Cultures:
Sport and Asian Pacific American Cultural Citizen-
ship.Lanham, Md.: University Press of America,
2000.
Hasday, Judy L.Kristi Yamaguchi.New York: Chelsea
House, 2007.
Smith, Pohla.Superstars of Women’s Figure Skating.
Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1999.
Anita Price Davis
See also Asian Americans; Kerrigan, Nancy; Olym-
pic Games of 1992; Sports.
Year of the Woman
Definition Popular political expression attached
to congressional elections
Date 1992
The 1992 congressional elections brought twenty-four new
women into the House of Representatives and four new
women to the Senate, the largest increase in the number of
women elected to Congress.
Following the unprecedented re-
sults of the 1992 elections, the num-
ber of female candidates holding
federal office increased from thirty
to forty-eight in the House of Repre-
sentatives and from two to six in the
Senate. Political pundits widely her-
alded 1992 as the “Year of the
Woman.” Americans elected the
largest number of female candi-
dates to Congress ever in a single
election. Because of factors like
women’s underrepresentation in
Congress historically, retirements,
the banking scandal, and congres-
sional redistricting, the House had
ninety-three open seats in the 1992
elections, which partially explains
female candidates’ congressional
successes. Following the election,
women accounted for more than 10 percent of the
total congressional membership for the first time in
American history. The election was also notable be-
cause Illinois state legislator Carol Moseley-Braun
became the first African American woman elected to
the Senate.
Since the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment
in 1920 granting woman suffrage, various political
observers had predicted the establishment of a
women’s voting bloc. Political analysts had in fact
prematurely labeled 1984 as the Year of the Woman,
expecting a breakthrough year for women in politics
when Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, a Demo-
crat from New York, was chosen as the Democratic
candidate for vice president. After Ferraro and her
running mate, presidential candidate Walter Mon-
dale, lost in a landslide to the incumbent president,
Ronald Reagan, a women’s voting bloc failed to de-
velop as predicted.
The 1992 elections revealed a clear female voting
bloc with women gravitating to the Democratic
Party. For instance, the presidential election ex-
posed an electoral gender gap, with more women
supporting Democrat Bill Clinton than Republican
president George H. W. Bush, although only by a few
percentage points. Clinton’s appeal among female
voters grew during his first term, in part due to First
Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who, unlike her pre-
decessors, worked full-time outside the home. With
the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings, congres-954 Year of the Woman The Nineties in America
Kristi Yamaguchi listens to her coach during practice for the 1992 Winter Olympics in
Albertville, France.(AP/Wide World Photos)