Gender Gap Politics

March 26, 2007 — -- Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is the first woman in U.S. history to be a major party's leading candidate for president. But will sisterhood translate into women's votes, propelling the former first lady into the White House as the country's first female president?

Clinton has been the Democratic front-runner among both male and female Democrats since announcing her candidacy in late January. But, according to a recent ABC News poll, female Democrats are more likely to name Clinton as their pick for the Democratic nomination than her male counterparts.

In a Gallup Poll released Friday, 39 percent of female Democrats support Clinton as their top choice, compared with 29 percent of male Democrats, marking a 10-percentage-point advantage for Clinton with women in her party.

Some suggest women are inspired by Clinton's candidacy because of the historic possibility of the first woman president.

"The excitement is there because this is the first chance to elect a woman president," said Ellen Moran, executive director of EMILY's List, the nation's largest political action committee dedicated to electing Democratic women, which has endorsed Clinton.

"This is a moment in history where we've got a woman candidate entering this race as a front-runner, and there's broad agreement that she can do this job and she would make a good president," said Moran. "We've never been in this place before."

Others suggest Clinton's gender gap advantage has more to do with her record on the issues.

"It's not surprising that Hillary Clinton has an edge among women; she has been a role model for an entire generation of women and has a voting record on issues that are of particular importance to women that is extremely strong," said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, the largest women's rights organization in the United States.