This page contains links and talking points to help sort through this question.

How are women responding to Palin?
Sarah Palin's VP nomination has been spun as outreach to women. If it was McCain's intention to draw women in, it isn't working especially well. White women have not been affected by the Palin bounce more than anyone else. Indeed, the Palin pick may have been meant to solidify white men's allegiance to the Republican ticket.
An excellent brief analysis about Palin's appeal to white voters depending on gender is here.

Does it matter whether she is a feminist?
Sarah Palin calls herself a feminist. But interms of advancing the interests of women, it may not matter what kind of feminist Palin is, if she is one at all. Here is how that argument would go:
Numerous studies, from the Israeli military to the California savings and loan industry to blue-collar and clerical jobs to law school faculties, show that it is harder for women to break into jobs that are male-dominated. The articles supporting these findings are in a Collab Resources folder called "glass ceiling."
Women aspiring to male-monopoly positions like CEO or VP face harsher evaluations compared to men than they do when seeking jobs where women are already more than a token minority. For these jobs both women and men seem unconsciously to consider maleness a prerequisite, so we overrate men and underrate women who are otherwise equally qualified. When women aren’t tokens anymore, evaluations are more fair.

Does it matter that John McCain is not a feminist?
An important issue in the campaign is whether characterizations of Palin are sexist. In this regard John McCain's own history may deserve further scrutiny.
John McCain laughed at the B-word during a campaign event during the 2008 primaries. Recently he volunteered his wife as a contestant in the Miss Buffalo Chip contest. He has a documented history of sexist joke-telling.
With Palin in the race and her advocates pressing the issue of sexism, this question is not likely to disappear.