'Binders Full of Women'

In this year's presidential debate there has been much talk about the white-black race discussions as the conservative, Republican, patrician Mitt Romney goes against our current president, the Democratic Barack Obama. In last week's debate, however, a new discussion came to the forefront of news media and social media, when Mitt Romney commented on the 'binder full of women' that he requested for his staff as governor of Massachusetts. Within seconds the comment had gone viral, even garnering its own Twitter account and Tumblr page (http://bindersfullofwomen.tumblr.com/). 

The Washington Post's article: 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/binder-full-of-women-comment-spills-onto-campaign-trail/2012/10/18/39bfbab8-1928-11e2-b97b-3ae53cdeaf69_story.html
 
But what was really interesting was the conversation that this comment stirred up. Romney was clearly trying to make the point that he believed in including women in his gubernatorial cabinet. He claims that after realizing his staff was all women he asked local women's groups to suggest qualified female candidates, and they supplied him with 'binders full of women'. Despite the fact that Romney was trying to show his support of women, the comment in fact led to lots of negative backlash. The way that he handled this story and his comments concerning it seemed to suggest just how out of touch with the female population the candidate really is! It was a bizarre statement that seemed to make it clear that this whole story was a stunt to falsify history of his pro-feminist opinions.

The Daily Beast article about Romney's comment going 'viral':
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/17/mitt-romney-s-binders-full-of-women-comment-sets-internet-ablaze.html

This whole debate however triggers a concern in me that I seem to face all the time- are we only concerned about this statement because it was about women? I feel that if roles were reversed, nobody would have cared. If Sarah Palin back in 2008 said that she had 'binders full of men' the audience would have chuckled and nobody would have thought twice about it. 

By making a point to include women and to tell everyone how inclusive we are, are we just agitating the problem? Does it really matter that Romney requested to have women in his cabinet if the real problem is that they weren't there in the first place? 

Women in this election are going to make a huge difference when it comes to voting, the 'Starbucks' vote as some people have dubbed it. By trying to make it clear how much he cares about women's' involvement, did Romney just lose their support?