Barack Obama goes all out to secure support of women voters It has zeroed-in on Mr Romney's clumsy recollection in last week's second presidential debate that he flipped through "binders full of women" to boost female representation in his cabinet as governor of Massachusetts. "When Governor Romney was asked a direct question about equal pay for women he started by talking about binders," Vice President Joe Biden scoffed at a rally in Nevada. Binders full of qualified women, as if, 'My God, they exist!' Binders! Folks, Talk about out of touch. Within 48 hours Mr Romney had released an advertisement, in which women members of his Massachusetts cabinet attempted to limit the potential damage. "He totally gets working women," insisted Ellen Roy Herzfelder, his former environment secretary. Beth Lindstrom, his consumer affairs director, said Mr Romney was anxious to help "single mothers or women who are trying to get back to work." With abortion rights an increasingly contentious issue, Democrats have also hit Mr Romney over his promise to de-fund Planned Parenthood, a non-profit network of clinics providing abortions and contraception, but also breast cancer screenings for the less well-off. Mr Obama, out on the stump in shirt-sleeves, has been sporting a pink rubber wrist band in support of breast cancer awareness month. Ann Romney went on a sponsored walk in Orlando, Florida for the same cause. In a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, Mr Obama last week dispatched Bill Clinton and Bruce Springsteen - two males who attract disproportionate numbers of women - to rally their vote. "Any woman who votes Romney is voting against herself," said Vicky Cardamom, a 52-year-old lawyer. His stance on reproductive rights is so backward I can't imagine a young woman ever supporting it. Mr Obama's team stresses that with two vacancies likely to arise on the Supreme Court during the next presidential term, women should know that the Republican has pledged to appoint justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. "Romney can't be trusted," said Cierra Parsons, a 16-year high school pupil at the Ohio rally. He went back on his word on abortion. He said he was for it, now he's against it. So how are we supposed to know what he thinks? Yet Mr Obama's claims of a Republican "war on women" have backfired among female voters more concerned about America's economic woe, said Kristen Kozinski, at a packed Romney rally in Daytona Beach, Florida. "Obama is trying to scare women into voting him by using birth control as a weapon," said Mrs Kozinski, whose 19-month-old son Brady wore a t-shirt declaring: "I don't want MY children to be paying for this deficit." She added: "Other mothers I talk to feel the same way." Dina Evans, a 52-year-old mother of three, agreed. "I own a restaurant and I agree we can't afford four more years of this," she said. I have one child in university, another has graduated. They are struggling to find jobs. We have to get this economy moving again. Crucial to both candidates' appeals to women have been their wives. Michelle Obama, whose popularity ratings far outstrip her husband's, has used her position as a mother to Mr Obama's young daughters Malia, 14, and Sasha, 11, to trumpet his pro-women policies. "He knows what it means to want our daughters to have the same freedoms and opportunities as our sons," she said in Wisconsin, stressing that an act guaranteeing women equal pay, which Mr Romney opposed, was "the very first bill he signed into law." "My husband will always, always fight to make sure that we as women can make our own decisions about our bodies and about our health care, always," said Mrs Obama. Mr Romney has likewise dispatched his wife, Ann, to stress his qualities as a loving husband and father of five sons to women who might be deterred by his old-fashioned, businesslike demeanour. However even some Republicans say that his struggle to appeal to the women of middle America has not been helped by 62-year-old Mrs Romney, who can at times appear just as awkward as her husband. "I love you, women!," she improvised, clumsily, while aiming to boost Mr Romney's feminist credentials during her speech to the Republican convention. "I think the President is ahead among women because of his wife," said Mrs Evans, the restauranteur from Ormond Beach, Florida. Michelle is very well spoken, she's a very 'real' person. People can connect with her, touch her. Mitt Romney's wife is maybe a little more upper class than most people -not as reachable for ordinary women.