Editor’s Note: wowOwow welcomes Cynthia McFadden to our lineup of wise women who are making this site the gathering place for informed women on the web. Cynthia is at the top of a distinguished career in journalism, currently serving at ABC News on both “Nightline” and “Primetime Live.” Here, one of wowOwow’s founders, Lesley Stahl, interviews Cynthia on the Hillary Clinton campaign in its final days. Welcome, Cynthia! And more on Cynthia to come from our CEO Joni Evans … but we wanted our community to see this on this historic morning.

LESLEY: Cynthia, welcome to wOw — a floating, non-stop ladies’ lunch! I am delighted that your maiden voyage on our site is a conversation with moi! First, because I always love talking to you, but also because you’ve been spending a lot of your time on this campaign, my favorite topic.

Let’s discuss one of the more distressing issues that has reared its head: sexism. Many of the women who support Hillary are deeply upset and angry at what they perceive as the same old “double standard” that you and I have heard about – and maybe lived — for decades now. In your reporting, have you seen what they are talking about? And more personally, have you felt this misogyny in your own career?

CYNTHIA: As for my career, yes, in my first job as a journalist my boss told me I’d be paid half of what the man who preceded me was being paid. Why? He had an ex-wife and child to support. As for the campaign, yes, I think in ways both subtle and direct sexism has played a role. But it is so ingrained in our culture; it goes largely unnoted and unchallenged. The press is very good at pointing out and decrying racism, thank God, but sexism washes over most of us much of the time.

LESLEY: You’ve interviewed Hillary at least five times during the campaign. We can legitimately say you’re a Hillary expert. I’ve seen a lot of criticism that she has “used” sexism as a campaign ploy to whip up her supporters. Is that the way you see it? And – can I ask you to reflect on your own experience? Do you think this is “helpful” for women? I could have been wrong, but I have gone through my career determined never to come off as a “victim” or to even allow myself to think that my falling short was anything but my own fault.

CYNTHIA: "Victim" isn’t a good place to be. And, like you, I have tried very hard not to ask for special anything (even when the guys do) for fear that somehow I will be seen as expecting or wanting special treatment. And I should say that expecting equal treatment, I have, by and large, received it.

But let me be a bit more specific about my observations … Clinton struggled to find the right tone in her candidacy and she found herself either ridiculed after the famous New Hampshire "cry" as manipulative and girly or lambasted as cold and, well, pardon me, but it rhymes with rich. As retired general Tony McPeak (an Obama supporter) said in an interview after New Hampshire, "Obama doesn’t go on television and have crying fits."

An op-ed piece in a Midwestern newspaper referenced her "frequent wearing of dark pantsuits to conceal her bottom-heavy figure." I am unaware of any similar attention focused on the male behinds in the race.

As for her trying to "use" her sex or charges of "sexism" in the campaign, my observation was talking about gender made her very uncomfortable for some of the same reasons I think we avoid it. She knows "whining" isn’t appealing, even if there are legitimate concerns behind it.

At one point, I asked her why she hadn’t given the “gender speech,” as Obama had done with race. She said she didn’t feel she had to give that speech. That every day she was living the gender speech … just by standing up and saying, "I am the best person to be commander in chief."