Poll: Obama maintains leads among women

>>> and our latest and final nbc news/" wall street journal " poll before the election, the president is maintaining an eight-point lead among women voters, mitt romney has ann a seven-point lead among men. joining me now for a look at the final stretch of this close race, california senator barbara boxer . senator, thanks so much for joining us. the gender gap has been a big issue, the women 's vote has been a big issue among voters throughout this campaign. let's talk about the gender gap . the president has sort of narrow lead among women . it's no longer the double-digit lead that he had. but is this enough for him to carry him, despite the disadvantage that he has with male, men voters, especially white men?

>> first of all there are more women voters than men voters. so when he's leading women by eight and romney is leading men by seven, i think the math works in our favor. but here's the other interesting statistic -- among the undecides, the few that are left, most of them are women . and i think as women look at this, whether they're number one issue is jobs, and they look at the latest jobs reports, do you know that you probably do, that barack obama , under his leadership, we've created more private-sector jobs in the last couple of months than george w. bush in eight years? and this president was handed the worst recession since the great depression. and we're coming out of it. and so we can't go back to those days. which is what romney /ryan would do, take us back. would take us back on health care . where being a woman was a preexisting condition. she had to pay twice as much for the same health insurance as a man. they want to criminalize a woman's right to choose. even in cases of rape and incest. that's in the republican platform. it's unbelievable. so i think when the president says, this election is about moving forward or going backwards, i think that sum it is up. and women as a rule, we look forward.

>> you have more women candidates running now in terms of senate seats. do you expect that when this is all over there will be more women senators, even despite the retirement from the senate in maine, of olympia snowe , a republican?

>> i do think so. and i called this the year of the woman about a year ago. i think that is going to happen.

>> sox of our women are within the margin of error, i'm nervous. everything is at stake, andrea, i've not seen an election like this in a long time. whether your issue is the economy and jobs, or health care or the environment, clean air , clean water are, we going to respond to too much carbon pollution in the air, which is causing global warming ? all of these things are at stake, housing. name your issue. and you'll see a tremendous difference between the candidates.

>> the republican, mitt romney and the republicans have been saying is that the economy is driving this and that women and other groups are driven more by economic interests, less so by concerns over reproductive freedom . what say you?

>> it's true in some states, i don't think it matters, auntia. if you're looking at jobs as your number one issue and how about the issue of equal pay for equal work . when mitt romney doesn't even know if he would sign the lily ledbetter fair pay act. compared to barack obama , that was the first bill he signed. so whether your issue is jobs, which are finally coming back now, and we can't go back to those days of george w. bush and the same policies that romney is embracing, whether that's your issue or whether you think it's fair that a woman should be made a criminal if she exercises her right to choose -- on both issues, the president and the democrats are on your side. and so i really do have faith in the women . you know, i will tell you a quick story. my mother was born before women got the vote and when i was a little girl , she would take me to the polls. with her and she was so enamored of voting and she pulled that curtain around her, in those days they did that. and later in life, she said, you know a lot of the women have the men fill out their ballot. but when we get in that booth and we pull the curtain, we do what we think is right. and i think you're going to see women step up to the plate for barack obama and the democrats.

>> barbara boxer , thank you so much, senator, thank you for being with us today.