The Quest To Become Ms. President

There is a new woman chancellor in Germany, a woman president in Liberia and also in Chile, but when it comes to the United States, the only female Commander in Chief is the one Gina Davis plays on television.

So why is a woman in the White House still just the stuff of Hollywood, asks CBS Sunday Morning contributor Rita Braver?

"We have a cultural issue about the masculinity of the presidency. I mean, it's a guys game. So you really have to work at it," says Marie Wilson.

Wilson runs The White House Project, a non-partisan organization dedicated to encouraging and training women to run for all types of public office, especially the big one.

"We ought to have lots of women running. When three or four women run, you've got to pay attention to their agenda," Wilson says.

Clearly, the buzz over a woman president focuses on Demcoratic Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. She is the only woman considered likely to run in 2008.

There's also growing pressure on the Republican side for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to enter the race, even though she insists she's not interested.

Wilson is optimistic about the chances of a woman appearing on one of the presidential tickets in two years.

"It's gonna happen and it could happen in 2008," she says.

But the truth is that at every level in American politics, women are still much more reluctant to put themselves out there than men are.

Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, points to former Senator John Edwards, the Democrat's 2004 Vice Presidential nominee, who is rumored for a White House run in 2008. Before he ran for Senate in North Carolina, he was a trial lawyer.

"I think men are more likely to kinda just jump in there and say, you know, I can do this. It's not rocket science and I'll figure out what I don't know when I get there," says Walsh.

Referring to Edwards, Walsh says, "You know, here's a guy who had never held elective office before in his life and the first thing he decides to do is run for the United States Senate. There are very few women out there who would make the decision the first time out to run for the United States Senate."

And there's another reason why women may put their political careers on hold: balancing motherhood and family with the rigors of public life.

"It's this weighing out, 'What do I do with my kids in this mix?'" Walsh says.

"Jane Swift had twins while she was governor of Massachusetts, at the same time, John Engler, who was the governor of Michigan at the time had triplets. Nobody ever asked John Engler how are you gonna manage being governor while you're raising these little girls. Yet Jane Swift could not stop getting asked that question," Walsh says.

Arkansas Democrat Blanche Lincoln actually left the House of Representatives to give birth to twins. Later, she became the youngest woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate.

She is now in her second term and she says that even today women still face another traditional obstacle: they are often judged on their appearance.

"Now as a woman you realize that if you don't have on lipstick, there's gonna be a big issue," Lincoln says. "Or, if you've got a run in your panty hose, you know, no one's gonna take you seriously about the answers that you have to these questions. Well does a man have that problem -- no."

Women have always had a tough time in American politics. In 1872, when Victoria Woodhull became the first woman to run for president, women did not even have the right to vote in federal elections. They didn't get it until 1920.

In later years a handful of women have run for president. For example, Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm in 1972 and Senator Elizabeth Dole in 2000. But none have gotten very far. Meanwhile, Americans have watched Golda Meir in Israel, Indira Ghandi in India and Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain win high marks for their powerful governing styles.

But Geraldine Ferraro, the only woman ever nominated to run for vice president on a national ticket, says that in the United States, a major obstacle remains: the question of whether voters will feel comfortable with a woman being in charge of national security and foreign policy.

"I had been in Congress not a tremendously long period of time, but I certainly had more knowledge about foreign affairs and other things than Ronald Reagan did when he became president of the United States," Ferraro says.

"So I was secure. I didn't have a problem with how I would deal with the Soviet Union. But, the press did. Ted Koppel did. I mean I was taking a test every time I went in for an interview," Ferraro recalls.

However, the perceptions of women are changing. Madeline Albright was Bill Clinton's Secretary of State and Condoleezza Rice has served as both the National Security Advisor and Secretary of State for George W. Bush.

Senator Lincoln scoffs at the idea that women are somehow "softer" than men.

"It's unfair to women, I think, when you're talking about fighting wars and defending freedoms, defending home and family. Let me tell you, you can't find anybody stronger or more determined than the mother and her children," Lincoln says boldly.

So will Americans really vote for a woman president? The 1964 movie "Kisses For My President" treated the idea as a comedy, though the issue of the "first man" still hits home.

However, a just released CBS News/New York Times poll finds that 92 percent of all Americans say they would vote for a woman if she were qualified, up from just about half in the 1950s.

But only 55 percent think America is now ready for a woman president. And guess what? Women are actually more pessimistic than men.

Wilson says women are harsher on other women because "whoever she is, she looks like us. What we want from the first woman is somebody who represents us purely, wonderfully. I mean, that is a hard thing. We demand more of women."

Yet women are being elected to all sorts of offices in record numbers and chances are that a woman will occupy the White House simply because there are more in public life: eight governors, 67 House members and 14 senators.

"I've been a senator for 13 years. I do not think if you ask a Texan about their "woman" senator, they would relate to that. They think of me as their senator," says Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas.

Hutchison is one of the Republican leaders in the Senate. Hutchison herself is often mentioned as a Republican vice presidential candidate. She says that in 2008, quality and qualifications will be more important than gender.

"It's just the right woman, who wants the job, who will run for the job, with the right credentials. I really think we're there," Hutchison says.

And Ferraro is already planning to attend a very special presidential inauguration in the not too distant future.

"When that woman is sworn in -- whether it's for president or vice president, I sure wish they invite me to the inauguration," Ferraro says. "I want to be right up there watching."