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"Young women and older women would hug me and say, 'I'm so excited for this, I'm so excited,' " Crowley told McClatchy. "When it feels like a barrier breaker and it's new to a generation of women to see a female on TV talking to these candidates, then I accept that it matters. That the optics of it matter."

The last woman to moderate a presidential debate was Carole Simpson, then of ABC News, who moderated a 1992 town hall-style debate between Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ross Perot. Simpson has complained that she and Crowley were both marginalized by being assigned a format where audience members ask the questions. Crowley said she'll wait to see how the debate goes before passing judgment on the format.

The choice of Crowley came after three high school girls collected 170,000 signatures on an online petition urging the Commission on Presidential Debates to choose a female moderator.

"I've never seen a woman asking those questions, it's been men all my life," said one of them, 16-year-old Emma Axelrod, whose father is CBS News reporter Jim Axelrod. "So how am I supposed to feel about myself when I'm told that only men can do this?"

Women are still playing catch-up when it comes to television news, said Frank Sesno, an Emmy-award winning television journalist who now directs George Washington University's school of media and public affairs.

"It's only been recently with Katie Couric and now Diane Sawyer that we've had women break the glass ceiling in the anchoring of nightly news; we still don't have enough women in senior executive ranks," Sesno said.

Sesno, who worked with Crowley at both Associated Press Radio and CNN, said she is skilled at cutting through the world of Washington insider politics and sound bites and getting at what matters to people.

"That will be what she brings to the debate and that is really, really important," he said. "Because these candidates have to be steered toward putting their wonkery into the context of real people's lives. If their sound bites can be translated into 'what does it really mean,' then that would be a great thing."

Crowley said she's trying to stay calm as she prepares to moderate on Tuesday. "I mean, it's a great gig, what can I say? I am really excited about it and I'm nervous about it. Everything that you might expect I would be, I am," she said.

Crowley, who laughs warmly and easily, both at her own jokes and those of others, grew up in St. Louis as the daughter of a furniture salesman. She worked her way up from traffic and crime reports to the AP radio network, NBC and then CNN in 1987.

She said she's been talking to everyone from Syria policy experts to "the guy that cuts my hair" to get ready for the debate.

"I don't think it's something you go in saying, 'I'm going to be this kind of moderator,' " Crowley said. "In the end the moderator wants a debate. I want these two guys to engage, and whatever I have to do to get them to engage, whether it's to stop it, encourage it, let it roll, not let it roll, I think that's what you do."

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There's far more to Crowley than being the first female in two decades to moderate a presidential debate, said Fox News correspondent Henry. "To define her as 'the woman moderator' is nonsense. She's a terrific reporter, an amazing wordsmith, a great friend, and oh, by the way, she happens to be a woman. She is the real deal," Henry said.

Crowley is known for meditating in her Washington office, and has done so to help get ready for the debate. She has a "calmness, a coolness about her," Henry said, that will shine through on Tuesday.

"I can guarantee you a few things. She's going to be ready, she's going to be prepared. But she's also going to be rested, have a little fun, and realize this is an important night but it's also just one night in her life, the president's life and Mitt Romney's life," Henry said.