The 2018 U.S. midterm elections are shaping up as a dramatic test not only of sentiment about the Trump administration, but also of prevailing gender roles in American society.

For much of the past year the #MeToo movement has drawn attention to sexual harassment and discrimination across broad segments of American society, ranging from motion pictures and the mass media to politics, and finally to Supreme Court appointments.

The narrow confirmation on Oct. 6 of Republican nominee Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, after a bitter debate concerning accusations of sexual assaults occurring over 30 years ago, only added fuel to a steady gender-linked transformation of American party politics that began in the early 1990s.