Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney responded to a question about job disparity between men and women in Tuesday’s debate by pointing to his hiring record during his tenure as governor of Massachusetts.

As he assembled his cabinet, he said, he observed that all of the early applications his staff brought to him were submitted by men.

“So we took a concerted effort to go out and find women that had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet,” Romney explained. “I went to a number of womens’ groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks?’ And they brought us binders full of women.”

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Eleven women served as part of Romney’s cabinet during his tenure as Massachusetts governor between 2003 and 2007, though three reported to outside departments, something Romney said earned his state top honors in a University of New York in Albany study of women in state leadership positions.

The Boston Globe reported that no women were ever made a partner at the company Romney led, Bain Capital, during his tenure from 1984 to 2001.

Watch Romney’s remarks on job creation for women, posted Tuesday by Buzzfeed, below.