Question of the Week: Do you consider gender when evaluating presidential candidates?

If a political candidate happens to be a woman, does that make a difference to you?

Perhaps more specifically, if a candidate for president is a woman, does that make you more inclined to vote for her?

That’s our Question of the Week for readers.

Other democracies — including one, India, even larger than our own, with Indira Gandhi — have had national leaders who are women for generations. No world politician loomed larger on the late 20th-century stage than Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, and Theresa May is in that hot seat now. In recent years there has been Helle Thorning-Schmidt as prime minister of Denmark; Yingluck Shinawatr as prime minister of Thailand; Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany; Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, president of Argentina; Dilma Rousseff, president of Brazil; Julia Gillard, prime minister of Australia; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia; Sheik Hasina Wajed, prime minister of Bangladesh; Johanna Sigurdardottir, prime minister of Iceland.

Our country has not joined that big club.

Obviously Hillary Clinton, Democratic nominee for president in 2016, failed to win. And the two major party nominees for vice president, Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Sarah Palin in 2008, were not on winning tickets, either.

Is that because they were women?

Do women, because of the lives they have lived, and because of society’s traditional gender roles, bring something different to politics than do men? Or are you entirely agnostic on the subject when it comes to marking your ballot, whether it’s for school board or the White House?

In the 2020 presidential race, so far Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Tulsi Gabbard and the non-politician spiritual writer Marianne Williamson have declared as Democratic candidates for the office — certainly the largest number of women to be in the early running for the job.

Is that a good sign in itself, or, again, do you believe that when it comes to leadership, the sex of the leader is simply not an issue?

Email your thoughts to Letters@Trentonian.com. Please include your full name and city or community of residence.