The upside of woman v. woman

• Woman v. Woman. In an election cycle with a record 525 women running (or at least saying they're going to run) for Congress or governor, it is bound to happen: woman versus woman races.

That's what sent Georgia's Stacey Abrams—the first black, female, major-party nominee for governor—into the history books: She defeated another woman, state legislator Stacey Evans, along the way. And California's 'jungle' primaries tomorrow could set up more all-female face-offs.

It's a somewhat new dynamic in politics, since having one woman—"the woman"—in a race used to be rare enough.

Such match-ups aren't necessarily eliminating the sexism that's dogged female hopefuls in the past. Katie Hill, a candidate for Congress in California's 25th District, told The Washington Post that a woman voter said she must wear pantyhose to be taken seriously.

But there is a huge upside: It's forcing voters and candidates themselves to look beyond gender.

"[Voters] immediately say, why should I choose one over the other? And the answer to that question can't be because one is a woman and one of them is not a woman," says Katie Porter, a Democrat vying to unseat incumbent Congresswoman Mimi Walters, a Republican, in California.

In that sense, woman vs. woman races are accelerating the normalization of female politicians—arguably the ultimate goal of the "pink wave."

When there are few female candidates, it's easy to "lump them together and say, ‘She's the woman candidate in that race,' " Kelly Dittmar, from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, told WaPo. "The more women you have running against each other, [it] really brings to the forefront the diversity among women...as candidates and as voters." Washington Post

• Holding court. The heated competition between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova will get its latest chapter today as the two meet in the fourth round of the French Open. As the two tennis stars each stage their own kind of comeback, their rivalry remains as compelling as it is lopsided. ESPN

• Amazon immune. One retailer Amazon isn't killing? Ulta Beauty, headed by CEO Mary Dillon. As Quartz explains, its high-touch approach is paying off. It just cracked the Fortune 500 and UBS has called it "one of the best growth stories in retail." Quartz

• Cruise control In what was supposed to be a seminal battle for the future of the Democratic Party, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein is instead cruising to what's expected to be a giant victory in tomorrow's primary. What's given the 84-year-old such a huge advantage? Moving further to the left, emerging as a staunch opponent to the death penalty and a big backer of the state's marijuana industry. Washington Post

• Nothing to cheer about. In the latest NFL cheerleader lawsuit, five former members of the Houston Texans' squad are suing the team, claiming harassment and unfair pay. Cheerleaders from the New York Jets, Cincinnati Bengals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Oakland Raiders, and Buffalo Bills have also sued their teams requesting fair pay. The Texans say the team constantly evaluates its procedures and "will continue to make adjustments as needed to make the program enjoyable for everyone." Fortune

• A story of her own. This lengthy profile of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie examines how the Nigerian author is handling her relatively newfound fame, as her notoriety as a novelist has morphed into full-blown international celebrity. New Yorker

• Raising good guys. After losing sleep at the thought of his sons harassing another person, David McGlynn, a professor at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, sought expert advice on how he, as a parent, could teach his sons to refrain from such behavior. His first takeaway? "[C]hallenging the prevailing norms of masculinity [is] more important than giving my sons a list of all the things they shouldn't do." New York Times

• Judge for yourself. The Huffington Post has the story of Stanford professor Michele Dauber's mission to recall Judge Aaron Persky, who famously gave student Brock Turner, convicted of sexual assault, a lenient prison sentence. After a year and a half, $1 million raised, and 95,000 signatures collected, Dauber succeeded in getting Persky's recall on the Santa Clara County ballot on Tuesday with a campaign supercharged by the #MeToo movement. Huffington Post

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