There have been reports that women are playing a large role in the tea parties. Bernstein hopes so:
I'm pretty skeptical that there's a Tea Party "movement," so I wouldn't really start talking about how it will affect American politics going forward. As far as I can tell, most of the Tea Party momentum is probably best seen as Republican Party discontent with unified Democratic government. But there are Tea Party events, and Tea Party organizers, and it is no doubt true that some people are becoming involved in politics for the first time, or increasing their level of involvement, through Tea Party activity. If it's true that a lot of the organizers are women, I think it's likely that some of those women will eventually forge serious political careers, and look back to the early Obama years as the spark that got them started. I hope that it's true; I tend to think it's not very healthy for the nation for one party's pols to be overwhelmingly white men while the other party is far more inclusive. So don't expect 2010 to be a good year for women in politics, but perhaps it will be the year that the Republican Party starts catching up to the Democrats and most of the rest of the world by nominating and electing women.
Hanna Rosin investigated the trend last month.