Re Edward Wayland’s Aug. 1 letter, “Cartoon sells Clinton short’’: I’m a mother of three daughters — and four sons, too. I plan to hold my nose and vote for Hillary Clinton in November.

But I grinned when I saw Dan Wasserman’s July 28 editorial cartoon. I read it as an ironic criticism both of Clinton’s struggles as a candidate and of her obvious charisma deficit, but also as a slap at our nation’s slowness to elect a woman to our highest office.

Israel, India, Britain, the Philippines, Australia, even Pakistan, have all had or currently have women as their prime minister or president. Bangladesh — Bangladesh! — currently does. Argentina had a woman president.

I’ve tried to raise my kids to look facts straight in the face, so let’s be honest here, too: How many of those women got there because of their family ties, as the daughters or the widows of former leaders of their countries? About half of them.

As qualified as Clinton is, by her resume, to be our president, can any reasonable, thinking American doubt that being married to a former president not only led directly to her becoming this year’s Democratic nominee, and likely, it seems, our next president, but that her “partnership’’ with her husband also led to her becoming a US Senator, finishing second in the 2008 Democratic primary, and becoming our secretary of state?

And come on, Clinton is more qualified, according to Wayland, than John Kerry or John McCain were, respectively, in 2004 and 2008?

Mary Johnson

Methuen