Clinton shows femininity to court key constituency

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Everywhere she goes, Hillary Clinton asks voters to help her make history as the first woman president.

Yet Clinton is increasingly portraying herself more as motherly and traditional than as trailblazing and feminist, sometimes playing up the differences between men and women.

At a fund-raiser in Washington yesterday wrapping up three days of her "Women Changing America" events, Clinton joked about how her male rivals have been focusing on her. "At first, you know, I didn't know what to make of it, and then a friend of mine said, 'You know when you get to be our age, having that much attention from all these men -' " she trailed off, as the audience of female donors roared with laughter.

Until now, Clinton had said little on the campaign trail about raising her daughter, Chelsea, now 27. But at the YWCA in Manchester on Tuesday, as she unveiled a $1 billion family leave proposal, she told story after story about baby Chelsea getting sick or crying inconsolably.

A day earlier on "The View," a daytime TV talk show aimed at female viewers, Clinton criticized people who focus on her haircut or clothes, yet she joked about the differences between her and her male rivals: "Well, look how much longer it takes me to get ready."

And at the AFL-CIO Democratic forum in Chicago in August, the most memorable moment was Clinton's buoyant declaration to the union faithful that if they wanted a winner, "I'm your girl."

Earlier in the campaign, she worked to solidify her credentials as a possible commander in chief, talking tough on national security. Her advisers said in interviews that they believe the New York senator has already demonstrated her strength and credibility on the issues, so she can afford to let her feminine side show.

"It is about being seen as the real person she is, which like a lot of us is a lot more than any single stereotype," said Ann Lewis, Clinton's senior adviser on women's issues.

But analysts also see a political calculation: She is less popular among older, married women who are more likely to prefer a more traditional role for women. Clinton's focus on women this week was a bid to consolidate her support among female voters, who account for much of her lead in many polls.

On the campaign trail, voters see Clinton, who has long been a lightning rod in gender politics battles, trying to soften one persistent image of her as a strident career woman in a pantsuit. Through the years, she has tried to overcome that persona, which dates in the national mind from Bill Clinton's 1992 run for the White House, when she derided the idea of staying home baking cookies. She gave her first interview as the wife of a president to a food writer for a piece on entertaining in the White House.

With her latest tack, there is some danger that she will alienate one of her natural constituencies, professional women, if they think that she is buttressing outdated stereotypes about women.

For instance, she often talks about fixing the Bush administration's mistakes, but drew groans when she suggested that would be easier for a woman, joking at the Iowa State fairgrounds in Des Moines in July that "there is probably one advantage" to her gender "because we're going to have a lot of cleaning up to do."

Clinton's main rivals for the Democratic nomination are not conceding the women's vote. The campaigns of John Edwards and Barack Obama have suggested that their candidates are as strong, if not stronger, on issues important to women, such as healthcare, poverty, and domestic violence.

"As the son of a single mother whose grandmother was the family's primary breadwinner, Barack lived through the struggles that everyday women face," Betsy Myers, who worked in the Clinton administration but is now head of Women for Obama, wrote in a memo issued yesterday. "This experience moved him to develop a lifelong history of standing up for women."

In a July interview with Salon, an online magazine, Elizabeth Edwards declared of Clinton, "She's just not as vocal a women's advocate as I want to see. John is."

This week, Clinton offered several policy proposals aimed at mothers, illustrating them with her own life story.

In Manchester on Tuesday, Clinton argued that parents struggling to balance work and family deserve more help from the government; she wants to expand paid family leave and make unpaid leave available to more workers.

She described being the first pregnant lawyer at her Arkansas law firm. "I kept getting more and more pregnant, and the lawyers just kept sort of walking down the hall looking away," she said.

Clinton also spoke about the stress of being a new mother, but acknowledged that she had more money and help than many women. "I once told Chelsea late one night when she was crying inconsolably, I said: 'Chelsea, you've never been a baby before and I've never been a mother before. We're just going to have to work to figure this out.' "

Theresa Alexander, 66, a retired veterans affairs administrator who raised five children, was waiting for a chance to get Clinton's autograph after the speech. "I thinks she's a great lady," Alexander said, praising Clinton's family values and her family leave proposal.

"She should have been here when my kids were young," Alexander said.

Pam Walker, 42, a New Hampshire social worker with four daughters, saw coaching in Clinton's more womanly image.

"I think the more career-focused side is the more authentic," said Walker, a Clinton supporter. "Honestly, she wouldn't be running for president if she were baking cookies all the time."

Kathy Sullivan, the former chairwoman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party who endorsed Clinton this week, said that voters appreciate hearing about the senator's experiences as a working mother and that comments such "I'm your girl" bring out her real personality.

"She turns on its head that impression that some Republicans have tried to create," Sullivan said. "Women have earned the right not to be pigeonholed by anybody."

Susan J. Carroll, senior scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers, said Clinton is appealing effectively to the vast majority of women - who don't necessarily identify themselves as feminists - especially less educated, working-class women. "A lot of women in this country refer to themselves as girls," Carroll said.

But Jaclyn Friedman, 35, a Boston-area feminist, activist, and writer, said she believes that Clinton has reinforced media stereotypes that hurt women who are in the public eye. Friedman is leaning toward supporting Edwards for his focus on poverty, even though she is pained not to be supporting the female candidate. None of her friends her age are Clinton fans.

"My impression is that most of the young feminists are like, 'Um, no,' " Friedman said.

Scott Helman of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Marcella Bombardieri can be reached by e-mail at bombardieri@globe.com.