Hillary Clinton failed to address what the New York Post called "her festering email scandal" when she spoke at a women's conference on Monday in New York, the newspaper noted. Her appearance came as the head of a congressional panel looking into the 2012 attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi spoke of "huge gaps" in the former secretary of State's email record.

But Clinton, widely viewed as the Democratic front-runner in the 2016 White House race – even though she has not officially declared her candidacy – "acted as if nothing was wrong" during the two-hour event on empowering women leaders.

"There has never been a better time in history to be born female," the former first lady said. "But that's just part of the story. The data also shows how far we still have to go."

Joined by her daughter, Chelsea, and by Melinda Gates, the wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Clinton argued women's equality was "the great unfinished business of the 21st century."

The three women presented the so-called "No Ceilings" report that tries to quantify women's progress around the world, Cosmopolitan noted.

"The data [it] contains gives us more power to help women and girls build a better future for everyone," Gates said. "[It] can help each of us answer for ourselves where we want to invest."

The Washington Post acknowledged Clinton's "professional lifetime spent working on behalf of women and girls" but reported the event had been "overshadowed" by last week's revelation that the then-secretary for years had used her personal email account to conduct government business.

If there was an attempt to distract, "It hasn't worked," the Washington paper added, noting two people familiar with her unofficial campaign said Clinton was likely to address questions about the email account this week, something a number of fellow Democrats have urged her to do.

Insisting the controversy was hurting the presumed candidate, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein over the weekend asked Clinton to "step up" and talk about the issue. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Feinstein's Minnesota colleague, said, "You're going to hear something from Secretary Clinton this week, I'm fairly certain it's going to be soon."