WASHINGTON - A year ago, Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand took some heat for starting a website dedicated to getting women more involved in public life - and for seeking donations on that website without making it clear that the money was going to her re-election campaign.
But that website was revamped long ago to end any ambiguity - and Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, seems to have been on a crusade to end any ambiguity about the sincerity of her efforts to promote the advancement of women in business and government.
In the last year, she has held round-table discussions on women's issues across the state, inspired the creation of a mentoring program for young businesswomen in New York City and served as one of the loudest advocates in Congress for women's equality.
It has all inspired a lot of praise from like-minded women statewide - as well as a harsh critique from Wendy E. Long, Gillibrand's Republican opponent in the November race for a full six-year term as New York's junior senator.
Those who have taken part in Gillibrand's programs describe her as a committed advocate for women whose work is unmatched by any of her predecessors.
"Sen. [Hillary Rodham] Clinton touched on a lot of the topics that Sen. Gillibrand has taken on, but Sen. Gillibrand has taken it to the next level," said Heather A. Filipowicz, executive director of the Western New York Women's Foundation.
Long, meanwhile, sees Gillibrand's efforts as a ruse to distract voters from her record of backing the Obama health care overhaul and the taxes that come with it, as well as her support for what Long sees as the president's less-than-winning economic agenda.
"She's supporting these taxes and then holding what I think are these cosmetic, phony, pandering, transparently political efforts to court, in this case, the women's vote," Long said.
Gillibrand insisted that her efforts on women's issues reflect one of her core beliefs.
"When women's voices are heard, outcomes are better," Gillibrand said. "We tend to be good listeners. We tend to be able to find common ground."
First and foremost, Gillibrand said, she wants women to reach higher ground. That's why she has convened at least seven women's economic round tables across the state in support of women in business.
"Right now, we need our generation of Rosie the Riveters," Gillibrand said at a round table in Buffalo last fall, referring to the symbolic female factory worker of World War II, whose iconic image is emblazoned on the senator's iPhone case. "Our economy - our country - needs women on the front lines of job growth and innovation."
The economic round tables serve as brainstorming sessions, where businesswomen discuss the obstacles they face and the help that Washington can provide in overcoming them.
Yet they're not enough to impress Long, who stresses that jobs are the first issue on the minds of women she meets in the state.
"I think it is just politics," Long said of Gillibrand's economic round tables for women. "She's always been courting the women's vote. She's very good at pandering to various constituencies, and I think that's clearly what she's trying to do here."
Gillibrand's round-table events may indeed be political - but that doesn't mean they aren't useful, said Kristi Andersen, a political science professor at Syracuse University who specializes, in part, in women in politics.
The sessions clearly aim to empower women and to inspire them to succeed in business, Andersen said, adding: "I thought that was interesting and impressive."
Gillibrand also held a "Women's Economic Empowerment Summit" in New York last fall that featured Valerie B. Jarrett, a senior aide to President Obama, and 500 attendees ranging from top businesswomen to young professionals.
At the meeting, Gillibrand unveiled a mentoring program that pairs corporate leaders with young women just getting started in business. A joint effort of the Partnership for New York City and the Council of Urban Professionals, the program now has 100 mentors working with 100 up-and-coming businesswomen.
"Sen. Gillibrand inspired this," said Chloe Drew, executive director of the Council of Urban Professionals. "It was her idea. She said, 'Let's make this about corporate women.'?"
While pushing women to thrive in business, Gillibrand also is pushing to get them more involved in politics. In addition to her women's issues website, she has hosted nine "Off the Sidelines" events across the country in the last 13 months, aiming to inspire women to run for office and offering tips on how to do it.
Still, "Off the Sidelines" remains her most controversial project, even though Gillibrand has worked to get past the dust-up of a year ago.
Asked whether her website should have made it clear from the start that money donated there would go to her re-election campaign, Gillibrand replied: "Absolutely."
"If you can do anything in hindsight, you make it better, for sure," Gillibrand said.
But Andersen, the Syracuse University professor, said she wondered why Gillibrand continued to steer funds from the women's website to her campaign instead of forming a separate fund that would be more clearly dedicated to women's advancement.
Meanwhile, Long sees Gillibrand's website as nothing but an effort to get Democratic women off the sidelines.
"She wants women off the sidelines, and she wants more women involved in politics, but I don't think she wants me involved in politics," Long said. "I think what she really wants is women who agree with her, who have her narrow and fairly extreme views on women's issues."
While superficially similar - both are Dartmouth College graduates with law degrees - Gillibrand and Long stand on opposite political poles.
Gillibrand is an ardent supporter of abortion rights, while Long's campaign material touts her as "100 percent pro-life from conception to natural death."
Gillibrand said the recent controversy over contraception and the Obama health care law would not have even happened if there were more women in Congress. But to Long, a Catholic catechism teacher, the Obama health care law's requirement that contraception be covered in health policies is a gross violation of the religious freedom of Catholic institutions that offer their employees health insurance.
In other words, New Yorkers have a choice between two women who would be radically different senators on women's issues.
Gillibrand vows more of the same, including a continued push for equal pay for equal work and advocacy for allowing women in combat. She pledges to continue with "Off the Sidelines" and dismisses critics who question her sincerity in that effort. "It's a cynical town," she said of Washington. "People don't believe what you're doing at first blush - but the proof's in the pudding."
Long dismisses "equal pay for equal work" as a "phony" issue, saying data has been misinterpreted to make it seem like women are not being paid fairly when they are. She says the real issue is jobs and insists her small-government approach is resonating with the voters.
Gillibrand "may be assuming that all women agree with her," Long said. "But I have bad news for her: They don't."
