Ndola — WOMEN and the youth are always key in an election. Just ask Hillary Clinton who made a comeback in the primaries with the help of a legion of sympathetic housewives.

For everything else that they present, one can count on the passion and loyalty of women in an election with the youth representing some militancy and dedication, factors that are always crucial in an election.

In addition, they are the most active in grassroots politics.

But even with that, women candidates always have difficulties getting elected. That is a fact, even though the world can point to the election of Margaret Thatcher as British Prime Minister, Angela Merkel as Chancellor of Germany and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as President of Liberia, among others, as enough proof that things are changing on most fronts for women candidates.

But that is not entirely so.

Locally here, attempts by some women to ascend to the highest office in the land have not been that successful. In the 2001 race, there were two female presidential candidates

Well, at least French conservative candidate Segolene Royal will testify so.

After trying almost everything else in her quest to stop the seemingly inexorable march of the eventual winner, Nicholas Sarkozy, Royal played what she hoped was her trump card in the last hours of the battle for the French presidency: Her femininity.

In what could be seen as a desperate attempt to attract undecided voters, it was reported that Royal was reduced to emphasising the novelty of having a woman in the Elyse Palace who was more than just a first lady.

"I know there are those who thought - and who still think - it is really reasonable to choose a woman? Is France going to dare? I want to say: Dare! Dare! You won't regret it," she said in one of her final rallies before the French voted in the Presidential race.

This was seen by many to be a gamble.

And indeed it was as it emerged later that she was being let down at the ballot box by one sector of the electorate that might have been expected to rally behind her cause - women.

Most polls showed that women were falling under the spell of the diminutive Sarkozy, even if Cecilia, his errant wife, since separated, was rumoured to have abandoned him once more.

With that, Royal changed tack, launching direct appeals to women voters, but by then it was too late: In the first round of voting, more women voted for Sarkozy, 32 per cent than for her 28 per cent.

So much for what the pundits had been calling the 'gender effect'.

In a series of campaign appearances in the week before the elections, she intensified her appeals to women, invoking the memory of Olympe de Gouges, author of the Declaration of the Rights of Women, who was sent to the guillotine in 1793.

Royal appealed to "all those women who have trouble making ends meet at the end of the month, saleswomen, cashiers, auxiliary nurses, cleaners."

The problem, however, according to the Times of London was not how to win more support among working women: They were already more inclined to vote for Royal than for Sarkozy.

It was their mothers' generation, the over-65s, who were giving her the cold shoulder - 43 per cent of them voted for Sarkozy.

Maybe not surprising, for it is believed that this age group of women tends to associate masculinity with power. But even then, a lot of women were prepared to be very bitchy.

A conservative minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, who was known for her taste in trouser suits, said: "We do not want a president who changes her ideas as often as she changes her skirts."

She later summed up Royal's performance in the televised duel with Sarkozy by saying: "Being vague is fine for fashion, not for politics."

It was not just women on the right who felt tempted to put the boot in. Feminists who might have been expected to applaud the first woman with a real chance of becoming president sniffed at what they saw as her prudishness.

"This country doesn't need a mummy to give it moral lectures," said Catherine Millet, controversial author of The Sexual Life of Catherine M.

Still, feminists throughout the world are cherishing the dream that Hillary Rodham Clinton will win the Democratic Party nomination and, subsequently, the national vote and become the first female President of the world's most influential country.

But Kellyanne Conway, writing on women voters in the United States, has tried to answer what the 2008 presidential contenders expect from women voters.

Conway says the variable in this presidential election could be a woman candidate, taking the debate from not if, but when.

The discussion has shifted from a hypothesised woman president to that woman president, namely, Hillary Rodham Clinton, wife of former President Bill Clinton.

"Still, past practice has proved that women do not necessarily vote for other women. If they did, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Dole or Carol Moseley-Braun would have won their parties' nominations for president when they sought the nod in 2000 and 2004, respectively, based on the simple notion that women comprise a majority of the voters.

"The 2008 race differs from past elections in that this is an election of many firsts. A woman, an African American, a Mormon, and a Hispanic are all well-poised to take their parties' nominations," Conway writes.

Conway, however, says party loyalty trumps gender, as indicated by a July 2007 Newsweek survey which found that 88 per cent of men and 85 per cent of women say that if their party nominated a woman candidate they would vote for her if she were qualified for the job.

Americans are said to express less enthusiasm, however, about the 'female factor' when it comes to how they judge their fellow citizens: Only 60 per cent of men and 56 per cent of women believe that the country is ready for a woman president.

But make no mistake, the topic of women in politics is certainly not new: Without tracing history's leading female figures - Isabella the Catholic, Maria Theresa of Austria and Catherine of Russia, who on the other hand did not rise to power through votes but by succession rights - suffice it to think that in the latter half of the last century there has been Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Golda Meir and especially Margaret Thatcher.

However, during this first glimpse of the new millennium, the debate has taken on a more pressing pace and it has especially recorded a series of important novelties both in Western industrialised nations and in parts of the world like Latin America, where machismo still prevails.

The proportion of female members of Parliament in the various parliaments has gradually increased and the awareness that women are more balanced and have more mediation skills than their male colleagues in many public sectors is taking root.

With Margaret Thatcher, winner of three consecutive elections, prime minister for 11 years and especially credited for the British miracle, Great Britain was in some way the forerunner of female progress in Europe.

The 'Iron Lady' did not only dominate her country's political scene by confining her male colleagues to supporting roles, but she also has the credit of having reversed the entire continent's economic trends by encouraging the success of liberalism on statism, which prevailed in the '60s and '70s.

Besides, she was too much of an anomalous figure to leave heirs, and all three British parties are once again led by men today.

Also worth noting, however, is the fact that Scandinavian countries have always been ahead of others. Absolute equality of the sexes had already been achieved on various occasions both in the parliaments and in the division of the ministries.

Africa also witnessed another 'first time' with the victory of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a almost 70-year-old woman and former executive of the World Bank, in the Liberian presidential elections.

She is the first African woman to achieve this. Those who know Africa's social structure will recognise the special event which results from both Western influence and the early stages of the evolution of customs which could - in perspective - subvert millenary traditions.

For now, however, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is a rare bird in an immense sea: There are no other women in the rest of the black continent who can make a bid for power.

For Zambia, however, it still looks like a matter of if, not when, a woman will become President. About two have made a shot at the presidency, both in 2001 - Inonge Mbikusita-Lewanika and Gwendoline Konie - but without much of an impact.

In terms of their credentials, you can actually safely say they are both qualified for any position that you can think of, even those available on the international front.

The situation as it stands now is that, of the major political parties, only one is headed by a woman, Edith Nawakwi, who is president of the Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD).

So, how do the fortunes look like for women politicians on the local front?

In 2003, the Zambia National Women's Lobby did make publish a research report on political parties' adoption systems in relation to the adoption of women in elections.

The research, conducted with assistance from the Friederick Ebert Stiftung, aimed at establishing intra-party hindrances to women's access and participation in party politics.

The interest to undertake the study stemmed from the large number of women that were not adopted by their political parties during elections.

In their findings, the Women's Lobby said for women to get adopted, they needed to pass crucial barriers.

First, they needed to convince themselves to stand for elections and, secondly, they needed to identify which political party and, thirdly, they needed to get selected by the party.

The Women's Lobby said the third stage, where the party gatekeeper actually chose the candidate, was perhaps the most crucial stage for getting women adopted.

"In particular, party structure, party rules and party norms along with the social and cultural systems impact negatively on the adoption of women - it has been discovered that women members of the party rarely support their fellow women and are used by candidates to bring down women opposing them," the report reads in part.

With that, feminists will obviously be looking at the outcome of the U.S. elections.

Should Hilary win, the influence and effect of it all is likely to have greater effect on how women participate in future elections.