Hillary Clinton seems like the natural Democrat choice for women in the Democrat party, but a recent poll indicates that her support there is waning sharply:

Hillary Rodham Clinton is suffering rapid erosion of support among Democratic women — the voters long presumed to be her bedrock in her bid to become the nation’s first female president.

The numbers in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll are an alarm siren: Where 71 percent of Democratic-leaning female voters said in July that they expected to vote for Clinton, only 42 percent do now, a drop of 29 percentage points in eight weeks.

The question is, “Why?” Most people assumed the only reason female Democrats were voting for Hillary Clinton was because she was a woman too, presumably. I don’t imagine that Hillary Clinton’s gender has come into question in the past eight weeks (any more than it should have over the last eight years, that is). So what gives?

I think two things can be gleaned from this poll. First, women vote the issues as well. The reason most Democrat women were in line to vote for Hillary Clinton is she seemed to stand for the things they care about, which include women’s health, abortion rights, women’s rights, etc. But they weren’t going to vote for Hillary just because she’s a woman.

Secondly, either Hillary Clinton has made some missteps that particularly affect her reputation with Democrat women or some other Democrat candidate is poaching Hillary’s supporters. Of those two options. I think the former is more likely.

Hillary has been polling badly with Democrats generally speaking since the whole email scandal began. She’s no longer the shoe-in for the candidacy that she once was, and it seems that the luster of another historic “first” doesn’t have the shine it used to:

Maya Chenevert, a community college student in Columbus, Ohio, who works as a nanny, recalled: “In 2008, I was only 13, but I was super excited about Hillary. I’m actually amazed that I’m not going to vote for her, because 13-year-old me would be so disappointed.”

Chenevert had originally hoped that she would be casting her first vote in a presidential election for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass). With Warren taking a pass on 2016, Chenevert now thinks that Sanders offers her the greatest hope of someday being able to afford the schooling it will take to reach her dream of becoming a physician assistant.

Does she want to see a woman in the White House? “Of course. But I’d rather wait another eight, or 12, or 16 years for another woman to run,” Chenevert said. “I totally swayed my mom, who has liked Hillary since 2008. She was so excited about a woman. She still would love to see a woman, but she doesn’t think Hillary is the right woman.”

Well, there you go.