Gloria Steinem raised a really interesting question this week in the New York Times about gender (one I wish I would have thought of first!):

If Barack Obama was a woman with the same experience and history, would we even be talking about whether” she” was a qualified candidate?

Steinem thinks the answer is, unfortunately, clear.

Steinem asks:

“The woman in question became a lawyer after some years as a community organizer, married a corporate lawyer and is the mother of two little girls, ages 9 and 6. Herself the daughter of a white American mother and a black African father — in this race-conscious country, she is considered black — she served as a state legislator for eight years, and became an inspirational voice for national unity.

“Be honest: Do you think this is the biography of someone who could be elected to the United States Senate? After less than one term there, do you believe she could be a viable candidate to head the most powerful nation on earth?”

Her point is a good one. Odds are, if you break it down that way, many of us would say “no.”

The only fact that was changed was gender, and, suddenly, one has to wonder whether that person should have a little more seasoning before embarking on a White House crusade. Applying that test to others, it really gave me pause.

But it also made me wonder, would candidate Hillary Clinton carry the gravitas we seem to think a presidential candidate should have if she wasn’t related to Bill Clinton? There are numerous other women Senators, who have much more political experience than Hillary, but they’re not in the race for the White House.

While we sometimes think that as women we’ve come a long way baby, in some respects we are still stuck in the gender stone ages, from (I sheepishly admit) relying on our husbands to take out the trash while we’re throwing in a load of laundry, to believing, at least on a subliminal level, that if two candidates are equal in every other way, we would believe that the one with the Y chromosome is up to the task, but the XX-er, not so much.

As a result of Steinem’s article, I’m looking at all the candidates in a brand new light. What about you?