The man in the West Wind Estate in Newtownards looks at the name on the leaflet and then at the stylish woman in the sharp suit standing on his doorstep. "Are you that Anne Robinson from the TV?" he inquires.
Ms Iris Robinson, DUP Westminster candidate and unionism's best known woman politician laughs. "No, but on June 7th I will be saying `David McNarry, you are the weakest link. Goodbye!' "
Ms Robinson (52) is favourite to win the Strangford constituency which the Ulster Unionist Party has held for 18 years.
Mr McNarry, her UUP rival, labelled himself the "stallion" in the race and her the "DUP filly". It's not an appropriate description. Ms Robinson is as tough as they come. She can argue against the Belfast Agreement as vehemently as the Rev Ian Paisley. "A woman is like a tea bag - when she is put in hot water, you see how strong she is," she says.
Northern Ireland hasn't had a woman MP since Ms Bernadette Devlin took the House of Commons by storm over 30 years ago. But women candidates could win up to four of the North's 18 Westminster seats this time. Lady Sylvia Hermon (45), a former law lecturer and wife of retired RUC chief constable, Sir Jack, is the pro-agreement UUP candidate in North Down. She is hoping to unseat anti-agreement UK Unionist MP Mr Bob McCartney.
She became actively involved in the UUP only two years ago but has greatly impressed the party leadership. By comparison, the SDLP's Ms Brid Rodgers (66) has been in politics for over 30 years. Yet it's only now that the mother of six and grandmother of seven has achieved prominence.
She is the North's Agriculture Minister but in West Tyrone the children know her as "the footand-mouth woman". She is aiming to oust anti-agreement UUP MP Mr Willie Thompson but there is also a strong Sinn Fein challenge.
In neighbouring Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Sinn Fein's Ms Michelle Gildernew (31) is hoping to take the seat once held by Mr Bobby Sands but now in UUP hands. In 1968, police removed her pregnant mother and aunt from a house in Caledon.
They were squatting in protest at its allocation to a single Protestant woman while their huge family lived in cramped conditions with in-laws. Ms Gildernew is now a member of the Stormont Assembly and, ironically, is vice-chair of the social development committee which oversees housing.
Ms Robinson sits in the Assembly with Ms Gildernew but doesn't talk to her or the other Sinn Fein representatives. "I'm proud that in three years I haven't looked or spoken to any of them. The hands of Sinn Fein/IRA are drenched in blood." She accuses Mr David Trimble of betrayal.
Glamorous and articulate, she is a far cry from the stereotypical DUP matron. Her husband Peter is the party's deputy leader. They met as teenagers at college. "He is my best friend. He is everything to me," she says. They have three grown-up children. While not members of the Rev Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church, they are committed Christians. They neither smoke nor drink but do enjoy "a wee smooch on the dance floor".
Ms Robinson works tirelessly for her constituents - "I fight their corner as if my life depended on it." Seriously ill last year following complications from a hysterectomy, she still managed to organise her constituency work from her sick bed.
Like Ms Robinson, Ms Brid Rodgers is an old political hand. Appalled by anti-Catholic discrimination, she joined the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s in Lurgan where her husband was a dentist. An orthodontist refused to work with him because of "that bitch who led the rebel march". More recently, loyalists dubbed her "the witch of the Garvaghy Road" because of her opposition to Orange Order parades in the nationalist area. The abuse doesn't come solely from one side. Ms Rodgers's campaign team say they've faced intimidation from Sinn Fein.
"Brid Rodgers - the People's Champion" is the slogan on her posters. But of the 400 put up in Omagh, only six remain. A group of men in a van harassed her and ordered her out of the constituency last week. Her canvassers in Carrickmore were told their car would be burned if they came back.
Lady Sylvia Hermon doesn't face such threats in North Down. She is enjoying the campaign. Currently a full-time housewife and mother, she has a first-class law degree. She secured a lecturing post at Queen's University Belfast when she was 21. She married Sir Jack, who is 28 years her senior, in 1988. He had proposed after three months.
She had written a paper criticising him for refusing to allow RUC women to carry guns. He asked to meet her and romance blossomed. She didn't change her views but she changed the title of her paper. "It was `Goliath and the Girl David'. Jack didn't like being compared to Goliath so I changed it to `Arms and the Man'." The Hermons have two sons, aged nine and 11. She says she probably should have entered politics a long time ago. "Perhaps I pampered my boys too much. But my own mother died when I was four, so I've poured all my love into them. They're coping well with my absence. When I come home from canvassing, there is a goodnight note on the bathroom mirror."
She has an open, confiding manner. She denies her opponents' claims that she is "to the manor born" and can't relate to working-class constituents. The women candidates' leisure interests are as varied as their politics.
Lady Sylvia enjoys birdwatching and working out in the gym - "the rowing machine is the only place I can get away from my mobile phone". Ms Rodgers plays golf - "well I'm too old for camogie". Ms Gildernew enjoys Gaelic football and going to the pub. Ms Robinson likes driving fast to Pavarotti - "but always within the speed limit".
Lady Sylvia says she isn't a feminist but thinks it "disgraceful" the North has no women MPs. Women bring "a different perspective" to politics, she says. They are "less confrontational and less interested in making personal attacks".
Ms Rodgers believes no generalisations can be made. The style of women politicians varies as much as that of men. She has become a feminist "through experience".
Ms Gildernew says she hasn't experienced sexism in Sinn Fein which she describes as "the most progressive political party" around. She doesn't describe herself as a feminist but as "a republican who wants to further women's rights". She is typical of the new breed of Sinn Fein politicians with no "IRA CV".
Her rise has been rapid. She dropped out of a business course at the University of Ulster to travel the world. On returning home, she ran the party's London office.
Ms Robinson is the only one of the four women candidates who opposes the agreement. "When you're a woman in Northern Ireland and you're anti-agreement, you're a third class citizen."