“I’m actually questioning my life because of what Hillary’s going through,” tennis icon Billie Jean King recently told Cokie during an interview for USA Weekend magazine. “It’s just very difficult as a woman who has fought for equality and fairness.”

“I just can’t believe the country’s still not ready for a woman.” That was the dejected summation offered by former Congresswoman and Ambassador Lindy Boggs as she watched the news the other night. Now almost 92, this pioneering feminist, who also happens to be Cokie’s mother, found herself as the “first woman” over and over again in her lifetime. And she is eager to see a “first woman president” before it’s finished.

Those sentiments explain why the last two voter groups still sticking with Hillary Clinton are white women and older people (who are mostly women). And if she’s to have any shot at salvaging her campaign, it will be those women who give it to her.

Look at what happened between Super Tuesday, when Clinton won a majority of the delegates, and the Wisconsin primary on Feb. 19. Groups that had been supporting her -- white men, Democrats, less educated and lower-income voters -- all shifted their support to Barack Obama as he racked up victories. She held on to whites overall, but declining support among women and seniors cut into her margins.