CRI听力:Record high number of women are running for US Congress and Governors

New figures show a record-high number of women are running for US Congress, as well as for governorships, in the forthcoming mid-term elections in November.

Sharmin Dharas is in charge of the Arizona office of Emerge America, a non-governmental organization specializing at training Democratic women to run for office.

She says the number of women knocking on her door over the past two-years has increased significantly.

"Since the 2016 election, we had women tearing down our doors to try to get in. Most of our affiliates across the country usually take in around 25 women every year. This year about 10 of our programs have doubled in size." 

Arizona's figure might just be the tip of the iceberg. 

The Center for American Women and Politics at New Jersey's Rutgers University recently conducted research on the participation of women in the United States 2018 midterm elections. 

It shows the number of women running for US Congress and governorships has set a new record this year. 

53 women have filed to run for US Senate, with 22 of them winning their parties' primaries.

At the same time, 476 women filed to run for the House, with 231 winning primaries, which is also a new record. 

For governorships around the country, 61 women filed to run, nearly doubling the record of 34 set back in 1994.

The just-concluded Arizona primaries have seen a score of women becoming party nominees for different offices. 

Doctor Hiral Tipirneni is one of them, running as a Democrat in Arizona's 8th Congressional District. 

She says she is not surprised by the rising number of female candidates this year. 

"A lot of people are like: wow, why now, why are all these women running? In my mind, I am like: it's long overdue. We are less than 20% of what's in DC right now. Women are represented by about 18% between the House and the Senate. So this is long overdue. There should be more equity, more diversity in DC," says Hiral Tipirneni.

With the midterm election just around the corner, a race-by-race analysis by NBC is showing that 30 to 40 new women are poised to enter the US House in January, potentially putting total number of women in the House to over 100. 

This would shatter the record of 24 newly elected female House representatives in 1992, which back then was dubbed as "year of the woman."

Compared with 1992, 2018 will see a number of women squaring off against one-another for Congressional and gubernatorial positions. 

Candidate trainer Sharmin Dharas suggests 2018 will be another "year of the woman" for the United States. 

"This year is really incredible. This is the year of the woman. This year really will determine and change the face of politics. I think it's incredible. Look at what we are talking about right now. We are talking about two women going up against each other. Two women. And this is America and we are finally hearing that. I think it's phenomenal," says Sharmin Dharas.

Despite the growing number of women running for office in the United States this year, the portion of women in elected office still lags far behind men.