DENVER -- Tonight, when New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton takes the podium to address the Democratic National Convention, Connie Williams will slip on her Hillary Clinton T-shirt in silent tribute.

"I love her," said Ms. Williams, a state senator from Montgomery County. "I am a delegate, and I will proudly cast my vote for her in the first roll call."

It's not that Ms. Williams doesn't support Sen. Barack Obama -- she does, ... now. But as a woman who grew up in the 1960s in the front lines of the feminist movement and as a staunch Clinton supporter during the Pennsylvania primary, she still isn't quite "over" Mrs. Clinton's failure to become the first female presidential nominee in American history.

She has plenty of company. In late July, a Lifetime Network poll found that 18 percent of women who backed Mrs. Clinton planned to vote for Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

And a USAToday survey released yesterday found that only 47 percent of Mrs. Clinton's supporters back Mr. Obama -- a number that worries some in the Obama campaign, who, along with the Democratic National Committee, have made sure that women's concerns get a high-profile treatment this week.

Indeed, women -- what they want, what makes them unhappy, what they've achieved -- has been Topic A all around Denver for the past few days, and it wouldn't be for the first time. When Denver hosted the Democrats in 1908, women's rights activists demanded the right to vote -- only to be ignored by the men inside the hall.

Not this year. Besides her speech tonight, Mrs. Clinton will also speak at a sold-out "gala" this afternoon hosted by Emily's List, the Washington-D.C. organization that raises money for progressive women candidates. Lily Ledbetter, whose equal-pay lawsuit lost in the Supreme Court -- and who became a rallying point in Mrs. Clinton's campaign speeches -- will also address the delegates tonight. She hasn't endorsed any candidate.

There have been numerous women-themed events around Denver this week. An "EqualiTea" celebrating women's equality was held by the National Organization for Women yesterday, and, at an "Unconventional Women" event at the Buell Theatre, in Denver's lavish performing arts center, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., hawked her new book and held forth before a theatre packed mostly with women about her struggles to make it in the mostly male world of politics.

There has been a lot of media coverage of unhappy Clinton supporters, but if that worried Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, he wasn't showing it at a news briefing yesterday. Mr. Obama is running much more strongly among women than the previous two Democratic nominees, he argued, noting that while Bill Clinton won women by 16 points in 1996, Al Gore won women by 11 points, and John F. Kerry by just three..

As both campaigns battle for the women's vote, there are some disturbing signs that certain segments of that population won't participate in this fall's election at all. Unmarried women, for example, vote far less than their married counterparts, according to a new survey by Greenburg, Quinlan Rosner, a Washington, D.C., polling firm. If their concerns aren't addressed, that means "progressives will leave millions of votes on the table in November."

The McCain campaign has already run two attack ads attempting to tap into the disaffection of Clinton supporters.

"She won millions of votes," a hushed female voice says on one of them, "but isn't on his ticket." On another is a profile of a Clinton supporter who was kicked out of the Wisconsin Democratic delegation when she announced that she was voting for the Arizona Republican.

"I have seen those ads," Mrs. Clinton said at yesterday morning's Hispanic caucus meeting in Denver, "and I am Hillary Clinton, and I do not approve of that message."

For his part, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a staunch Clinton supporter, delivered a stern lecture to wavering Clinton-ites at the Pennsylvania delegation's breakfast yesterday. "It's over," he told the group. "Everybody has to be on board. Everybody."

"If you want Hillary Clinton to be president -- and I think someday she might be -- you've got to help elect Senator Obama. He's a good man, and if you care about Hillary Clinton, you've got to do the things she's asked us to do."

Some at the breakfast didn't have to be persuaded. While Mrs. Clinton has now officially released her delegates to vote for Mr. Obama tomorrow night, "I have already released myself," joked Shelly Rahman, of Newtown Square, Delaware County. "I am now supporting the Democratic candidate, which is more important than any feelings I may have had before. All of this focus on Clinton versus Obama is distracting us, draining our energy."

Still, the decision by the Obama campaign to allow Mrs. Clinton's name to be placed in nomination -- in an attempt to mend frayed relations between the two campaigns -- came too late for some.

"The DNC made a terrible mistake when it underestimated the anger by her supporters at the way Hillary Clinton was treated -- by the party, by the media, by the Obama campaign," said Faye Wattleton, executive director of the non-profit Center for the Advancement of Women.

Nonetheless, said Pennsylvania's Rep. Allyson Schwartz of Montgomery County, who vigorously campaigned for Mrs. Clinton during the primary, the party's delegates -- even those sporting "Hillary" T-shirts -- will coalesce around Mr. Obama after this week.

"There are a lot of very strong supporters of Hillary Clinton who are disappointed. I am still a huge admirer of hers. But when women see the contrast between Barack Obama and John McCain on the issues, they'll come around. And just by having these two candidates compete against each other, this party has done something incredibly historic and important here -- and good for us."