( CNN ) -- GOP candidates Christine O'Donnell , Sharron Angle and Nikki Haley have captured the attention of the country this election season , but they 're just a few of the record number of women pursuing office this year . More than 160 women congressional and gubernatorial candidates won their primaries and will be on the ballot next week , leading some observers to dub 2010 the `` Year of the Woman . '' This year 's record-breaking numbers are encouraging , but deceiving , said Siobhan `` Sam '' Bennett , president of the Women 's Campaign Forum . `` We 're ranked 90th in the world in the number of women in elected office . We trail behind Cuba and Afghanistan , '' she said , citing data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union on the percentage of women in national parliaments . `` [ People ] look at Hillary Clinton 's run for Congress . She 's secretary of state . They look at [ House Speaker ] Nancy Pelosi and say , 'Oh , we got there ! We have parity , ' `` Bennett said . `` Nothing could be further from the truth . '' Bennett worries that for the first time in more than 30 years , we 'll see a backslide in the percentage of women in Congress , particularly among Democrats . Democrats are expected to lose seats in the House and Senate , and the female lawmakers in office are overwhelmingly Democratic . There are 13 Democratic women in the Senate , compared to just four Republican women . In the House , there are 56 women who are Democrats and 17 who are Republicans . `` The deeper problem underneath all this is we do not have a pipeline or a bench of women prepared to step up and run for the inevitable number of women that we are going to lose this cycle , '' added Bennett , who was the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania 's 15th District in 2008 . `` She Should Run , '' a program run by the Women 's Campaign Forum , is an effort to recruit and equip women candidates . The program also encourages women to ask other women to consider making a bid for office . iReport : Maria Shriver shares her thoughts on women in politics . In a potential blow to the current crop of female candidates , women voters are n't as pumped about heading to the polls this year , according to national surveys . `` We have n't seen this in the past , but this year it does look like women are less enthusiastic about voting than men are , '' said CNN polling director Keating Holland . In a commentary for CNN.com , Susan Wefald and Sara K. Gould , both with Ms. Foundation for Women , pointed to a number of factors leading to lower levels of excitement : . Women feel overburdened by the state of the economy , turned off by the current state of American political affairs . `` The rhetoric of this political season may not be what we want or like , but times are simply too tough for millions of women to sit this one out , '' they wrote . Jennifer Lawless , a former congressional candidate and current director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University , says it is not specifically women who are low on enthusiasm this year . `` Women are disproportionately registered as Democrats . So it 's not necessarily that women are less excited and less interested -- it 's that Democrats are , and that indirectly means women are , '' she said . Based on her experience campaigning for the midterms , Sue Lynch , president of the National Federation of Republican Women , said she thinks interest among Republican women is higher than ever . `` The enthusiasm that I 'm seeing as I travel across the United States has just been overwhelming , '' she said . `` The enthusiasm I think is at its peak . I do n't know that I 've ever seen in the past 12 years at the national level such a camaraderie for our women in moving forward and running as candidates . '' The female candidates , she added , are bringing a new tone to the Republican Party . `` My adrenaline is pumping , '' Lynch said . `` It is the year of the Republican woman . I pray to God that on November 3 I 'm right . '' Lawless , who is less optimistic about Election Day , says she expects at best , women will hold steady at 17 seats in the Senate and lose four to six seats in the House . `` All of the pieces were in play for an anti-establishment , anti-Democratic , anti-incumbency year , and we 've seen that happen , '' she said . `` Republican women running this cycle have an opportunity to represent that which is not currently in power -- which tend to be Democratic establishment candidates . '' 1992 -- the previous `` Year of the Woman '' -- was really the year of the Democratic woman , because that was who represented the anti-establishment candidate at the time , Lawless said . `` It 's shaping up to look like the year of the Republican . And it turns out that in some of the most high-profile races , the Republicans actually have women running . ''
A record number of women run for office , but experts fear women will actually lose seats . Republican expected to lose seats , and female lawmakers are mostly Democrats . Observer predicts women will hold steady in House and lose a few seats in House . But veteran campaigner Maria Shriver says , `` It is 1992 of the Democrats woman ''