It took one month for the leader of the Québec Liberal Party to resign after leading her party to its worst electoral defeat.It's a shame. Dominique Anglade was seen by many as highly qualified to rebuild the badly bruised party. But she had trouble connecting with voters. Pollsters measure this ability to connect by asking voters to choose which leader they would most like to have a coffee or a beer with. Two months before the election, a Léger poll showed Anglade and PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon ranking last.The week before voting day, in another Léger poll, voters viewed Anglade as having run the worst campaign.It wasn't a surprise. The Liberals were the only party without a full slate of candidates announced at the start of the campaign, three of its existing candidates pulled out in the first few days. Then, the week of the first leaders' debate, the “party of the economy” was forced to correct its costed platform, confirming the debt figures were off by more than $16 billion.Robert Libman offered other reasons for Anglade's poor performance in an OpEd last week in the Montreal Gazette: “Some in the party believe another reason that Anglade failed to connect with voters is that many had trouble identifying with a leader from a visible minority. Expect the next leader to be an old-stock francophone”. He added, “and probably male.”Québec's voters might not be ready for a leader from a visible minority. But did Ms. Anglade's gender play a role in the outcome?It likely did. Not because Quebeckers are particularly sexist, but because the Liberals chose to make their leader's gender a central part of their advertising message. In doing so, they might have unwittingly put their leader in a double-bind; the no-win situation in which women leaders are seen as competent or likeable, but rarely both.Even before the official start of the campaign, the Liberal Party of Québec chose to focus on the leader's gender with a series of quirky ads. They showed Dominique Anglade suddenly appearing as Jeannie did in the 60's sitcom to pitch the party's healthcare and environmental policies. The ads signed off with the word ELLE with the two “L”s drawn to mirror the party's logo.On the first day of the campaign, François Legault, who avoided referring to his opponents by name, called the Liberal leader “cette madame” (this lady). Anglade changed her speech to declare that “La madame, elle a un plan.” (The lady, she has a plan). While it may have been a clever way to officially launch her campaign, it's doubtful gender was meant to be at the forefront on that crucial first day.In an attempt to get back on track for the second leaders' debate, the party announced we'd see the “real” Dominique. It was likely a way to align the leader's persona with the party's slogan to “Vote for real.”Anglade, an accomplished engineer and MBA graduate, tweeted a video minutes before the debate of herself dancing to the tune of I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eye Peas. She then delivered a strong performance, often inserting her personal family experiences to make her points.In one of her last interviews before voting day, Anglade was asked about the gender card. "To me, that's not playing a card. It's doing politics my way, with a "feminine leadership" that would tint the public policies of an Anglade government.” She talked about the “mental workload" women carry as a topic not usually discussed in politics.The Liberals' ad campaign ended where it began with Anglade's portrait and the headline: “Are you voting Liberal? Yes madame!”From beginning to end, planned or not, the Liberals played the woman card and lost.Yet, the number of female parliamentarian candidates in the last election surpassed all previous records. Premier Legault's cabinet has 30 members, 14 of whom are women. Women are playing a pivotal role in Québec politics. There's no need to play the woman card.Éric Blais is the president of Headspace Marketing in Toronto. He has helped build brands for over 35 years and is a frequent commentator on political marketing, most recently on CBC's Power & Politics.