Women across the political spectrum – regardless of whether they’re Republican or Democrat – agree that 2008 has been a transformative year for women in politics and women’s issues.

The Washington Post reports that between Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, and her quest for the presidency, and Alaska Gov. Palin being named to John McCain’s Republican White House ticket – two formidable women were offered up as potential leaders of the U.S.

Gender was not a disqualifying factor for either Clinton or Palin; voters who don’t support them dislike these ladies for different reasons.

Palin’s candidacy has sent shockwaves through traditional liberal women’s organizations as she tries to redefine feminism, suggesting that the old movement has become detached from the hockey moms Palin champions. The Post says the mother of five and former beauty queen is the exact opposite of the bra-burning militant women’s libbers of the ’60s – and her unapologetic stance on being anti-abortion is vastly different from most women who consider themselves feminists.

Yet Palin – the woman McCain has called “a direct counterpoint to the liberal feminist agenda for America” — has been hailed as a feminist by thousands of supportive women.

In an interview on NBC Nightly News that aired Thursday, Brian Williams asked Palin: "Governor, are you a feminist?"

"I’m not gonna label myself anything, Brian," said Palin. "And I think that’s what annoys a lot of Americans, especially in a political campaign, is to start trying to label different parts of America different, different backgrounds, different … I’m not going to put a label on myself."

But during an interview with CBS News’s Katie Couric, when Palin was asked the same question, she responded: "I do … I’m a feminist who believes in equal rights and I believe that women certainly today have every opportunity that a man has to succeed, and to try to do it all, anyway."

Palin has forced some traditional feminists to reconsider their movement’s mission – since the core of it has always been about being in control of their reproductive lives.

"Sarah Palin is throwing the calculus out the window and demonstrating a view that some people would call feminism: I can be governor, I can have five children, I can shoot and field-dress a moose, and I don’t need access to abortion,” said Sarah Stoesz, who runs the Planned Parenthood office that oversees Minnesota and the Dakotas.

Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, told the Post that although she doesn’t agree with Palin’s views on issues critical to women, she thinks it’s important for her own teenage daughters "to see women competing at the highest levels of American politics."

Geraldine Ferraro, who 24 years ago became the first women to run on a major party’s national ticket with Democrat Walter Mondale, said: "I never thought I’d see another woman on a national ticket in this cycle after Hillary lost … But it’s like a ripple effect. Hillary’s candidacy, my candidacy — they have a ripple effect far beyond the immediate results."