This is how our minister for education's shoes were described during the week following on from her appearance at the Irish National Teachers' Organisation conference in Cork.

According to reports, the delegates met Mary Hanafin's cerise pink outfit with approval, while some weren't crazy about her shoes.

Earlier this year, a government delegation went to the Middle East and our female politicians were scrutinised for their sartorial elegance or lack of it. Liz O'Donnell was cheekily referred to yet again on radio last weekend as "luscious Liz" when she appeared in photographs posing with a glass of wine looking as well turned out as ever.

The doctors of spin will no doubt be keeping a close eye on all of our election candidates in the run up to the big day to make sure that they are dressed in a way that is pleasing to the eye of the voter. This has to be an easy job when it comes to the men - except perhaps in the case of Enda Kenny, where the decision over where to part his hair seems to be a daily dilemma. For women in politics though, projecting the right image must be a right headache.

Mary Hanafin had teaching delegates telling her last week they had bets on what colour her outfit would be, while Mary Lou McDonald is the subject of internet forums discussing her attractiveness.

And Lucinda Creighton, who is running for Fine Gael this time out, was given a thumbsdown for her election poster by a women's magazine, which said it did her "no favours at all". Although if she gets elected, she will be, to my knowledge, the only long-haired member of the TDs club.

How politicians present themselves obviously has a bearing on how we vote.

Otherwise Bertie wouldn't wear makeup and would still be surgically attached to that much-maligned anorak of his.

The experts might say that we trust a man in a suit; someone who is welldressed is confident and inspires confidence in the message. For women, it's more complicated.

What did Mary Hanafin's "frivolous slingbacks" say about her? Should she wear sensible shoes or femme-fatale killer heels? Do we deduce that if a female politician spends too much time on hair, make-up and clothes, she must be low on policies and clip-clopping behind the grey-suited boys when it comes to forming the future of the state?

Getting it right for a woman is a tricky business. Reserved chic must be the order of the day. But you have to feel sympathy for those women who have no interest in style yet get subjected to the dissection of their attire by an imageconscious press and public. It might be argued that in the hallowed corridors of power, it would be better to be seen as a tough operator rather than a doyenne of style.

Perhaps the best example of a female politician who has nailed 'the look' is French presidential hopeful S�gol�ne Royal. In typical French style, she is the epitome of elegance and grace. Royal always gets the outfit just right - never so casual as to be mistaken for a lightweight and never so sexy as to be dismissed as playing on her feminine charms. We can only wait to see how influential her easy, inoffensive glamour is on the French electorate, who would appear to attach great importance to such things.

Perhaps we in Ireland are some way off the expectations continental voters have of their politicians' fashion. We are still waiting for a suave Berlusconi or a slick Romano Prodi.

What we do have is Brian Cowen, who was also out and about last week.

He was in Laois announcing himself as a member of the Fianna F�il team running for election in the Laois/Offaly constituency.

Not known as a dedicated follower of fashion, we didn't hear much mention of the colour of his suit or the frivolity, or lack thereof, of his shoes.

For now, at least, both he and his male colleagues get away with giving just a nod to looking good. But as the campaign trail heats up over the coming weeks, his female counterparts will undoubtedly take the brunt of the style mafia's poisoned pen.