Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is so down with the idea of a matriarchy that she laughed at the notion of letting a man into her presidential cabinet.

During an interview with Newsday, Clinton was asked if there would be "gender parity" in her cabinet. Clinton responded: "Sure, absolutely, because I sure would love to reach that."

But when asked a follow-up question by Newsday's Lane Filler about whether she would "at least let one man" into her cabinet, Clinton laughed and said: "I'm still considering that."

OK, I get it. This was a joke, and if I had been there I probably would have laughed. We as a society need to chill on this kind of stuff and not be so sensitive when it comes to obvious jokes like this.

Of course Hillary Clinton will have men in her cabinet. Some of them might be white, or they might not be.

The issue here — and the reason I'm writing this when I generally think we should lay off politicians who tell dumb jokes — is the double standard. If a male candidate had this exact same exchange about a woman being in his cabinet (and wasn't joking, but simply stating that he would be looking at resumes and considering the best person for the job — regardless of gender), he would be excoriated.

Case in point: When former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney discussed his quest to ensure qualified women were hired in his administration as Massachusetts governor, he was lambasted because he said he had "binders full of women", referring to resumes. Romney was specifically talking about making sure he included women in his administration, and he was made fun of and accused of sexism.

Now here we are, with a female presidential candidate joking about the possibility of excluding a sex from her candidate, and laughter's had all around.

In another follow-up question, Newsday editor Rita Ciolli asked Clinton if she had "a list" of women she was considering for positions. Her colleague Filler jokingly added: "Binders?" And all three laughed once again.

So when Romney suggested hiring more women, he was a sexist, but when Clinton suggests not hiring men, she's a comedian?

Because in this day and age, especially with Clinton as a presidential candidate, gender matters more than merit.

Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.