Chance to make history can win Hillary women's votes

Indianola (Iowa), US: Hoping to attract female voters in Iowa, Senator Hillary Clinton may have one very effective weapon -- the opportunity to make history.

Helping send the first woman to the White House could draw women to support the former first lady in Thursday's Iowa political caucus, the first state contest to pick Republican and Democratic candidates for the November 2008 election.

"I definitely want to be alive for the first woman president," said Pat Carpenter, 67, a volunteer with Hillary's campaign in Des Moines.

"I like that she's a woman. I think women are smarter," Carpenter added in a conspiratorial whisper.

In Indianola, Iowa, 68-year-old Pat Slykhuis said she never expected to see a woman president in her lifetime.

"It seemed like it was always the men," said the Hillary supporter, "and the women were always put down. I think it's going to be wonderful. I want to see history made here."

America needs a woman in the White House, added 80-year-old Addalene Ferguson of Ackworth, Iowa.

"A woman is a problem-solver," she said. "A lot of people, not only women but men too, are ready for a woman."

On the campaign trail, the New York senator does not overtly declare that voters should back her because she is a woman but she does stir thoughts of a potential historic moment.

Introducing her mother, Dorothy Rodham, this week at a campaign event, Hillary noted: "My mother was born before women could vote in America, as many Iowans whom I have met were."

The campaign has made an effort to appeal to older women, said Mark Daley, Hillary's Iowa communications director.

"We've met a lot of women, a lot of women in their 90s, who were born before women had the right to vote, that are just so excited about the prospect of having the first woman president," Daley said at a campaign stop in Cedar Rapids.

"In any election, there's different demographics you go after in different ways, and we have gone after women, older women in particular," he said. "But many other factors weigh into their decision-making process."