BoomerGirl Diary

Austin, Texas — Regardless of whether Hillary Rodham Clinton wins the Democratic nomination, she already has turned presidential politics on its high heel.

Clinton - and rival Barack Obama - have managed to convince women who have only flirted with politics before to commit in a very concrete way - through their pocketbooks. The number of female campaign contributors giving more than $200 has skyrocketed, and women make up a much larger percentage of donors than in past election cycles.

"As any fundraiser will tell you, the hardest check to get is that first one," said Ellen Malcolm, founder of EMILY's List, a political action committee for female candidates who support abortion rights.

"The more women who get involved in the political process by making contributions, many of those women are going to stick with it. And that's going to be good news for women candidates running in the future," Malcolm said.

She and other experts said that historically, women have knocked doors, licked envelopes and sometimes given out $50 or $100 checks. The average contribution to EMILY's List, which touts itself as the biggest political action committee in the nation, is $97.

So far, 61 percent of those who have given between $200 and $1,000 to Clinton were women. For Obama, 44 percent of his $200 to $1,000 donors were women, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which analyzes political donations.

Republican John McCain has received 23 percent of his contributions in that range from women.

For Democrats and women, the numbers are unprecedented, said professional fundraiser Jennifer Treat, a Texan who spearheaded contribution efforts for former Gov. Ann Richards.

She pointed out that only in recent history have women had disposable income and felt the freedom to spend it. Traditionally, they have contributed to charities and churches, and when they did back a candidate, it has generally been in response to direct-mail appeals that yielded small contributions, she said.

"It's the natural evolution of a trend that has been around for a long time," Treat said. "And now we've stepped to a new place."

She credits Clinton. "Women, particularly of a certain generation, see themselves through her and see their struggles through her and relate to her in a personal way," Treat said.

But once women feel the empowerment of being part of a political movement, it will be easier to engage them with other candidates, she said.

"You have to look at a race like this and see how many new voters and new donors it's attracting, and that feeling of empowerment is pretty intoxicating," she said.

Ted Delisi, a Texas Republican fundraiser and political strategist, said women's wallets have opened up for Clinton because her base is the mother lode of virtually every marketing and commercial campaign: older professional women.

And spurring them into giving are a series of incredibly competitive primaries and the "unbelievable tidal wave of Obama contributions from the Internet," he said.

"She's been able to motivate and mobilize a potent force," Delisi said, adding that he has seen GOP candidates such as state Comptroller Susan Combs tap into a similar enthusiasm, albeit on a smaller scale.

"Whether this opens up the heavens to every other woman candidate, I don't know if I could go that far," Delisi said.

Marie Wilson, founder of the White House Project - which for 10 years has sponsored training and advancement classes for women in politics and business - said that she already has seen the energy of the Democratic primary translated into real results. Training sessions for how to run political campaigns have exploded.

"We had 160 women coming in ... in a blizzard last week" at an event in rural Minnesota. "What I'm seeing are women actually stepping up to the plate because they are sensing there is opportunity for them."

She said minority and younger women, in particular, now see the possibilities of women on city councils or school boards, or even in the White House. In that, she said, Clinton's campaign already has been a success.

"We don't know how it will turn out, but I sense that it has already shifted things for women," Wilson said.

"My projection is that you'll never have another presidential campaign without a woman or women candidates, and we'll never have another conversation again about, `Can a woman be president?' It's over," she said. "Of course you can."

Tease photo by Aaron Jacobs.