Katie Couric's Notebook: Women Candidates

The year of the woman it was not. 

Though high-profile female candidates dominated headlines for months, they didn't dominate at the polls. 

Mama Grizzlies Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle won't be roaring into Washington, and big bucks didn't mean big wins for Meg Whitman or Linda McMahon.

In fact, while a record number of women ran for Senate, the number in Congress could fall come January...for the first time in three decades... and the first Madam Speaker will lose her gavel.

Some women DID make history, of course. South Carolina, Oklahoma and New Mexico all elected their first female governors. And Lisa Murkowski could become the first write-in senator in 50 years.

But we also saw a disturbing trend: Female candidates telling their male opponents to "man up." If we don't want to be limited by OUR gender, we shouldn't knock men for theirs.

Women deserve equal representation in government... but using playground taunts and stereotypes to get ahead only sets everyone back.

That's a page from my notebook.

I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.