Though the recent economic crisis appears to have given a back seat to the nation’s Sarah Palin-mania, the fact which still stands is that women voters could be an important factor influencing the US presidential race - the pivotal force in this hotly contested election.

In fact, the election appears to be very much a women’s election - both the leading candidates, McCain and Obama are vying for the women’s vote, more so because since the early 1980s women have turned out to vote in larger numbers than men. In addition, there are the historic markers - this is the first time the Republicans have put a woman on their presidential ticket. Actually, for the first time in 25 years, a woman of either party has been on a major party ticket. Moreover, there is Hillary Clinton’s formidable rise as the first major woman contender for either party’s nomination.

For the first time the election has given the American electorate real examples of individual women leaders at the highest levels of politics. Political scientists say the impact of candidacies of both the women – Clinton and Palin - has made this a ‘transformative year’.  

According to Ruth Mandel, a cofounder of the Center for American Women in Politics, “This period in 2008 has finally smashed the generic stereotype of one woman leader is all women leaders.” She added: “It used to be that if I said, ‘A woman in politics,’ it conjured up a generic image. Now people might think of Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi or Sarah Palin or Condeleezza Rice. These are very different women with very different ideologies.”

In such a scenario, the Republicans are trying to keep ground in what’s become one of the most aggressive fronts in the race for the White House - the war for women. Their biggest weapon, rather than any one issue in particular, is one woman - Sarah Palin.

On the Democrat front, two of Obama’s leading messengers in his new focus on women voters are Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill. In fact, an array of prominent Democratic women has planned an ‘all out’ effort around the country – promoting an equal-pay law for women and expanded health insurance for children - during the next six weeks. Courtesy of the Wall Street turmoil, they have a single message, reflected in Nancy Pelosi’s words: “John McCain says the fundamentals of our American economy are strong. American women know better.”

The final word appears to have come from Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, who said: “The women’s vote can be decisive in this race.”