ATLANTA — Karen Handel’s first television ad featured lipstick, her second a cheerful, green purse.

But as she campaigns to become Georgia’s first female governor, Handel’s words have been anything but soft and feminine. That escalated when, in a debate Sunday, she unleashed a scalding attack against her GOP opponent, Nathan Deal, labeling the former congressman corrupt, and saying he needs to stop “squealing” and put on “big boy pants.”

Women in politics walk a delicate line. They must appear tough enough to do the job but still not lose their appeal as a woman, said Marie Wilson, president of the White House Project, which trains women to run for office.

“That kind of crosses that line, I think,” Wilson said of Handel’s remarks. “And it could turn voters off.”

Wilson noted that Democrat Hillary Clinton — whose pioneering run for the presidency set a new standard for women on the stump — “always had to be tough enough.”

“But when she cried people felt better,” Wilson said, referring to an appearance in New Hampshire where Clinton choked up while talking about the rigors of the campaign. Clinton went on to win New Hampshire, but lost the presidency.

So, is Handel a tough female trailblazer or has she made a shrewd political calculation to use her gender as a weapon in the state’s GOP primary? The answer, not surprisingly, depends on who you ask.

One thing is certain: as they fight to win the GOP runoff next week, Handel and Deal are navigating the tricky terrain of gender politics.

Handel’s campaign theme has been the muscular “bring it on” and she says she is the candidate to go after the “good ol’ boys” at the state Capitol. She says she isn’t leaning on her gender but is merely using to “differentiate between myself and my opponent.”

And her campaign notes that Deal does not have clean hands. During the primary, he repeatedly accused her of supporting domestic partner benefits for gay couples, which she denies.

In the runoff, Deal has sought to stay above the fray, insisting he’s focused on issues and that her attacks show her campaign lacks substance.

But he also released a carefully calibrated rebuttal in a new campaign ad that hit the Atlanta media market on Monday,

“Her political mud, mixed with her sticks and stones, will not build a bridge to Georgia’s future,” Deal says in the spot.

Critics say Handel is trying to have it both ways, hammering Deal for alleged ethical lapses and then crying sexism over a release from his campaign that labeled his female supporters “real women.”

“There is some real hypocrisy,” said Orit Sklar, a 25-year-old Deal backer from Alpharetta, who had been a Fulton County organizer for another Republican candidate, Eric Johnson.

Sklar said that as a conservative woman she’s been feeling “some pressure to view the Republican runoff in terms of identity — in terms of gender — rather than issues.”

“But I frankly think what Karen Handel is doing is unbecoming for someone who wants to be our governor,” Sklar said.

Into the gender mix comes former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — whose endorsement of Handel is widely credited with helping lift her to a first place finish in Georgia’s July 20 primary,

Palin has said women activists — or “mama grizzlies” as she calls them — will lead a conservative wave this November. And Palin’s support for Nikki Haley in South Carolina is believed to have helped lift Haley to a win in the Republican gubernatorial primary there.

Palin is set to headline a get-out-the vote rally for Handel the day before the runoff, an event designed to galvanize Handel supporters, particularly women, and get them back out to vote in the heat of summer.

Wilson said she believes Palin — and her mama grizzly theme — has given female candidates a license to be even tougher on the stump.

“I think, in a way, what Palin has done is to raise the bar for how ’grizzly’ you have to be, people have responded to this woman who is a moose shooter, a hunter,” Wilson said.

Deal, for his part, flew around the state with a pack of women supporters on Monday, including prominent women in the state Legislature hoping to neutralize the Palin effect. They said they are basing their support on political agenda — not gender.

House President Pro Tempore Jan Jones — the highest ranking woman in the state Legislature — said she’s disappointed Palin is wading into Georgia politics on behalf of a candidate “she barely knows.” And she said Palin hurts women candidates everywhere by making selections based on gender.

“I’d like to ask her personally to stay out of Georgia’s business because she doesn’t know Georgia,” Jones said.

“This race is not about whether you carry a wallet or a pocketbook.”

Still, for all the talk about this being the “year of the women” in GOP politics, there is a lot of ground to make up.

There are just six female governors in the nation.

Georgia has never had a female governor, nor has it had a female U.S. senator.

Just 19.5 percent of the state Legislature is female, which ranks it 38th in the nation, according to the Center for American Women in Politics.