In January of 1937, the Gallup Poll, then in its second year of existence, posed this question: “Would you vote for a woman for president if she was qualified in every other respect?”

Sixty-four percent of Americans said no, 33 percent said yes, and 3 percent had no opinion on the matter.

Some variation of the question would be asked by pollsters for the next eight decades, including during the 2016 campaign cycle, which saw Hillary Clinton become the first woman nominated for president by a major party. Harkening back to the women of Seneca Falls and their Declaration of Sentiments along with the struggles and triumphs of her own mother, Clinton made history this week in a country where women are paid less than men for the same jobs and spousal rape wasn’t illegal in all 50 states until 1993.

The American people’s ideas about a woman’s fitness for office have fluctuated over time. In 1940, three years after Gallup’s initial survey, the question was asked again, this time by People’s Research Center. Respondents were less inclined to vote for a woman — 73 percent said no. Something in the public’s mood, perhaps the specter of world war, seems to have played to the great disadvantage of the hypothetical female president.