Message, not gender turns US voters from Hillary

STANDARD BEARER: Some experts feel the 46-year-old Obama with his wife and children makes 60-year-old Hillary seem outdated to some voters.

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Even if US feminists can chew on many issues such as workplace constraints and lack of widely available cheap child care, few female voters view Hillary as a ''standard bearer'' for their cause because women span the spectrum of opinion and leaders already seek out their votes by responding to some of their concerns, Wolf said.

She cited the focus by politicians including Bush and Bill Clinton on middle-class ''soccer moms'' who care about education, health care and crime.

''What matters is to be comfortable and run the race that you believe in because you can't please everybody,'' said Victoria Budson, head of the Kennedy School's Women and Public Policy Program.

In an ideal world, Hillary would be judged on her merits rather than her gender but this was unlikely to happen, she added.

Hillary faced a struggle her rivals rarely confront to balance the appearance of toughness with a softer quality US voters look for in female politicians, said academic Barbara Kellerman, who published Women in Leadership in 2007 and has written numerous other books on the subject.

Hillary's congressional vote in 2002 to authorise war in Iraq made her appear tougher on national security than some rivals. But she is also accused by critics of being cold and failing to show emotion, traits that in a male politician might be interpreted differently.

Debate over Hillary's style resurfaced at a campaign event on Monday when she became uncharacteristically emotional and teary-eyed as she described why she was running and the obstacles she faced.

Political comment ranged from sympathy to charges she was faking the emotion.

Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin suggested on her political blog The Tears of a Clown should be Hillary's new campaign song.

Kellerman said it would be a mistake to blame Hillary's style if she lost the nomination because until recently that same style had won her front-runner status among the Democratic candidates.

''If her candidacy does not succeed I hope that women will learn the right lessons from her defeat and not make overarching conclusions about how impossible it is (for women) to get to the top,'' she said.