To the Editor:
Among the disturbing implications in Ana Catalano's Oct. 17 editorial, "Feminism: A Call for Revival," is the suggestion that the need for a female president is so great that voters should consider this criterium at the exclusion others.
Hillary Clinton may well run in 2008, but it is the educated voter's mandate to evaluate her (dismal) track record ahead of her gender. The insinuation that voters should select a female nominee simply because of her womanhood is more damaging than many of the injustices and stereotypes that Catalono decries in her editorial.
Americans should be concerned about the disproportionately small number of women in politics. But the statistics Catalono cites are misleading in the context of her admission that her mother's generation was denied opportunities women now take for granted. The women who serve our country now were of this generation, and most had to overcome considerable obstacles that don't exist today.
Woman should be active in exercising their rights. If injustice and imbalance exist, Americans must do everything in their power to right the wrongs. However, the gap in equality and achievement is certainly less profound than Catalono would have us believe.
