SENECA FALLS, N.Y. — Senator Clinton, standing outside an abandoned knitting mill that will become the new home of the National Women’s Hall of Fame, said yesterday that she hopes America is ready for its first woman president.

“It just depends on when and if that happens,” Mrs. Clinton told ABC TV’s Nightline. “Stay tuned.”

Mrs. Clinton continued to duck questions about whether she will run in 2008, saying yet again that she is completely focused on her reelection this year.

But Mrs. Clinton said that, when it comes to a woman holding what she called “the toughest job in the world, some day it will happen.”

Mrs. Clinton was on the campaign trail yesterday reaching out to women — a core group of supporters — in her front-running bid for a second Senate term, a race that many see as a prelude to a run for president in two years.

The former first lady followed the stop in Seneca Falls with lunch at a restaurant in Moravia for a new group — “Moms for Hillary.”

The events served as a reminder that Mrs. Clinton, who was inducted into the women’s hall in 2004, made history in 2000 by becoming the first, and thus far only, woman independently elected to statewide office in New York. The state has had three female lieutenant governors, but they have run as part of male-led tickets.

In Seneca Falls, Mrs. Clinton was greeted by several dozen enthusiastic supporters at a cafe near the site of the hall of fame project, for which she has obtained $800,000 in federal money.

Among those on hand was Rose Francis, 89, owner of a Seneca Falls dress shop for the past 55 years.

A Republican, Ms. Francis said she supported Mrs. Clinton in 2000 and would vote for her again this year.

She also said Mrs. Clinton should run for president in two years and that she would be happy to help make the former first lady the first woman president.

“I think she’s great,” Ms. Francis said.

Recent polls have shown Mrs. Clinton far ahead of her rivals in the New York race, and with a distinct advantage among female voters.

A poll released last week by Quinnipiac University’s Polling Institute found the job approval rating for the state’s junior senator at 58% — 53% among male voters and 63% among women.

The same poll found the state’s senior senator, her fellow Democrat Charles Schumer, sporting a 59% voter approval rating. But in Mr. Schumer’s case, no such gender disparity was apparent — 59% of men and women approved of the job he was doing.

During the 2000 campaign, the Clinton camp became so concerned about opposition from some women, especially professionals, that it set up group meetings to win them over.

But even some women who support Mrs. Clinton’s re-election this year are not certain that she should run for the White House in 2008, in large part because she is a woman.

An elementary school teacher from Penn Yan, Valerie Brechko, said Wednesday during a Clinton campaign stop that, while she is a strong Clinton supporter, she does not want her to run in 2008 because she cannot win.

“I don’t feel that our country is willing or ready to vote a woman into that office,” Ms. Brechko said. “I hate to say it — I’m definitely a women’s libber — but they’re just not ready.”

Mrs. Clinton faces a September 12 primary against anti-Iraq war activist Jonathan Tasini.

A former Yonkers mayor, John Spencer, and a Reagan-era Pentagon official, Kathleen Troia McFarland, are vying for the Republican Senate nomination.