Barack Obama: It was women wot won the election So the Democrats mounted a careful, targeted and sustained campaign to secure the women's vote. Accusing Republicans of a "war on women" - Mr Obama focused on reproductive rights, access to health care and fair pay. So he turned an 8 point lead among women in 2008 into a 12-point lead on polling day. As Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, the executive director and co-founder of MomsRising - a campaign group which describes itself as somewhere "moms and people who love them go to change our world!" - explains: "Moms had a great deal at stake in this election and they voted their interests. From making the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act the first bill he signed into law as president, to his historic achievement of implementing health care reform, President Obama has stood up for women, moms and their families and in this election, we stood up for him. Rightwingers looked like headbangers Let's be honest: far too many rightwingers looked like headbangers when it came to women. From radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh's bizarre rant against the law student Sandra Fluke (pictured left) for having the temerity to mount a campaign on birth control to the infamous remarks on rape and abortion by Republican candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, they showed themselves as antediluvian, wedded to a world-view many American women found deeply offensive. Mr Akin - he who believes that in cases of "legitimate rape...the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down" and avoid pregnancy" - and Mr Mourdock - who describes pregnancy resulting from rape as "something that God intended to happen" - wrecked their party's chances of taking control of the Senate. Jason Whitman, the GOP chairman, tweeted laconically: "I just want to say a quick thank you to @ToddAkin for helping us lose the senate." A good result for a woman's right to choose So yes this was a good result for a woman's right to choose. Good too for gay women - Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay senator - and Wisconsin's first woman in the senate. There were other firsts too - the first Asian American woman in Mazie Hirono, and the first disabled woman in Tammy Duckworth. In fact, there will be a record number of female senators in Congress. Could women yet win it for Ed Miliband here? At the moment Britain is nowhere near as divided on gender lines. YouGov's analysis suggests a gender gap of a single percentage point between the main parties, by contrast with a massive 20 point gender gap in America. But with a health secretary who wants to slash the abortion limit, to a prime minister who looks set to break his pledge on women ministers, that could change. David Cameron needs to take note.