Beneath the poll 'headlines'

A poll conducted by Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway of WomenTrend and Democratic pollster Celinda Lake of Lake Research showed that neither Obama nor McCain has secured support from a majority of women voters

49 percent of women prefer Obama and 38 percent prefer McCain.
Six percent of those women said they were only leaning toward a candidate.
Ten percent were undecided

Nearly 90 percent of black women and 62 percent of Hispanic women polled prefer Obama, while nearly half of white women prefer McCain. More Hispanic women remain undecided (14 percent), compared to black women at four percent and white women at 11 percent.

In the poll, 55% of women say that Obama's selection of a female running mate would make no difference to their voting choice.

The poll's results were based on interviews with 500 women across the country with an additional 100 black women and 100 Hispanic women. The margin of error for the main sample is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points, while the margins of error for the subgroups is higher.

However other polls, while in agreement with these results for younger women, have also indicated that Barack Obama has a problem among women over 40 and a big problem among women over 50.