Is America really ready for a female president? Will women in the Kanawha Valley vote for her?

"She's a very formidable candidate," a South Charleston woman said. "She's ready for the job, but I'm afraid the nation isn't ready for her. I don't feel we have educated people enough to accept a woman for the presidency."

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Reliving the past, Rosalie Thomas peruses a stash of memorabilia that includes a portrait of her in 1947, two snapshots with her daughter and a clipping of the 1964 newspaper article that quoted her about the idea of a woman for president.

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"It's not that women aren't as smart as men," said a Belle homemaker. "It's just too big a job to put on a woman."

"I believe a man is better for the job," said a female voter from South Hills. "It's a powerful world and it takes a man to run it."

"A man doesn't have the foresight and interest that a woman has," said a Kanawha City woman. "Men are too easily swayed by others' opinions."

"I just hope that sex won't be the determining factor," said a woman from South Charleston.

On and on it goes, a gender debate ignited by a woman's bid for the White House.

Only the woman in question isn't Sen. Hillary Clinton.

On Jan. 27, 1964, U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, R-Maine, announced that she would run for president.

The Charleston Gazette immediately dispatched a reporter to Capitol Street to interview women about this major break with tradition.

"Would you vote for Margaret Chase Smith, or any other woman, for president?"

Responses from 16 women appeared the following day on the society page with garden club news, a parenting column and pictures of brides with puffy hairdos. The story identified each woman by her husband's name. That's how they did things back then.

The reporter stopped Rosalie Thomas of Sissonville on the corner of Capitol and Quarrier, in front of Cohen's Drug Store.

"A Sissonville Road woman, Mrs. James R. Thomas ... feels men will criticize any woman in politics, just like they do women drivers. She also thinks that women are finding their place in the world, that any woman who can run a home can run the presidency, and that a woman in that position would be good for worldwide peace.

"She would not hesitate to vote for a woman, she said, provided she was well qualified and had a sound platform."

Recently, the now 81-year-old Rosalie Wooten Hodges Thomas ran across a yellowed copy of the article in a basket crammed with old recipes and obituaries.

Is America really ready for a female president? Will women in the Kanawha Valley vote for her?

"She's a very formidable candidate," a South Charleston woman said. "She's ready for the job, but I'm afraid the nation isn't ready for her. I don't feel we have educated people enough to accept a woman for the presidency."

"She's been in diplomatic circles for a long time, and she is certainly qualified," said a doctor's wife from Kanawha City. "But she's too liberal for my way of thinking."

"It's not that women aren't as smart as men," said a Belle homemaker. "It's just too big a job to put on a woman."

"I believe a man is better for the job," said a female voter from South Hills. "It's a powerful world and it takes a man to run it."

"A man doesn't have the foresight and interest that a woman has," said a Kanawha City woman. "Men are too easily swayed by others' opinions."

"I just hope that sex won't be the determining factor," said a woman from South Charleston.

On and on it goes, a gender debate ignited by a woman's bid for the White House.

Only the woman in question isn't Sen. Hillary Clinton.

On Jan. 27, 1964, U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, R-Maine, announced that she would run for president.

The Charleston Gazette immediately dispatched a reporter to Capitol Street to interview women about this major break with tradition.

"Would you vote for Margaret Chase Smith, or any other woman, for president?"

Responses from 16 women appeared the following day on the society page with garden club news, a parenting column and pictures of brides with puffy hairdos. The story identified each woman by her husband's name. That's how they did things back then.

The reporter stopped Rosalie Thomas of Sissonville on the corner of Capitol and Quarrier, in front of Cohen's Drug Store.

"A Sissonville Road woman, Mrs. James R. Thomas ... feels men will criticize any woman in politics, just like they do women drivers. She also thinks that women are finding their place in the world, that any woman who can run a home can run the presidency, and that a woman in that position would be good for worldwide peace.

"She would not hesitate to vote for a woman, she said, provided she was well qualified and had a sound platform."

Recently, the now 81-year-old Rosalie Wooten Hodges Thomas ran across a yellowed copy of the article in a basket crammed with old recipes and obituaries.

"I looked at the date and counted up the years. Forty-four years ago, people were thinking about this." This time, it's a more accepted thing, she said. "All it is now is just this woman running for president. Women are finding their place in the world.

"What hurts me about this war is that young ladies are fighting alongside these men. That shows you that women have found their place."

In 1964, they were still searching.

A Nitro woman quoted in the story said she approved of women running for lesser offices, "but they don't have any business in the president's seat."

In 1964, women were getting their consciousness raised by Betty Friedan's revolutionary book, "The Feminine Mystique," published the year before.

In 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson gave his first State of the Union address and announced his war on poverty. "Hello, Dolly!" opened on Broadway. The Beatles released their first album in America. The surgeon general proclaimed for the first time that smoking could kill you.

In 1964, Cassius Clay changed his name. The Civil Rights Act passed. Martin Luther King won the Nobel Peace Prize. "Days of Wine and Roses" won a Grammy. "Tom Jones" won the Oscar. "Peyton Place" premiered on TV.

In 1964, at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco, delegates placed Margaret Chase Smith's name in nomination for the presidency, a first for a woman.

She also was the first woman elected to both houses of Congress. Succeeding her late husband in the House of Representatives in 1940, she served four terms in the House and was elected to the Senate in 1948.

In final balloting at the convention, she refused to withdraw and ran second to Sen. Barry Goldwater.

Rosalie Thomas followed all that. But in 1964, she had a lot more on her mind than politics. She was a working mother, a partner with her husband in their paving company.

The reporter's questions that day caught her off guard. "I don't think I was paying direct attention then. It was a busy time. I was raising a 13-year-old daughter and working with my husband in our business. Our days ran from daylight to after dark, but I never missed a PTA meeting or things like chaperoning the cheerleaders."

She would respond to the questions a little differently today, she said. "I'd add more about what is expected of a person."

The "born and bred" Democrat said she hasn't made up her mind about Hillary Clinton. "I've been watching this female, and I don't know if this is the right woman. She says she's going to do anything to get in. That's the wrong attitude. She should stick to her guns but keep them firing in straight lines."

Her daughter, Missy Young, will vote for Hillary. "But what's important is that I vote," she said. "My mother always instilled in me to be independent, to work and to vote. I did the same thing with my daughter. She's 23, and she calls me now and says, 'Mom, when are we going to vote?'"

They wouldn't miss this one for the world. "It's a historic election," she said.

To contact staff writer Sandy Wells, use e-mail or call 348-5173.