The question seems to be about pronoun agreement and the correct and smooth syntax of the sentence.
Quote:
(A) In evaluating the challenges faced by female politicians, the question of whether their qualifications are as respected as those of their male counterparts is paramount.
Generally, not a bad option - but because in the first part of the sentence the subject is 'challenges', not women, then the pronoun 'their' looks like it refers to those challenges, which is wrong.
Due to this unclarity,
A is incorrect.Quote:
(B) The question of whether the female politician’s qualifications are as respected as those of their male counterparts is paramount in evaluating the challenges that they face.
In this option it's unclear, who 'they' refers to, because we only use 'female politicians' in the possessive form - hence,
B is incorrect.Quote:
(C) A question that is paramount in evaluating the challenges that female politicians face is if their qualifications are as respected as those of their male counterparts.
This is a very strong contender, because everything seems in agreement - and furthermore, the pronoun 'their' quite obviously refers to female politicians, who are also the subject of the first part of the sentence.
So far,
C looks like the correct answer, but let's look at the remaining options as well.
Quote:
(D) The question of whether the female politician’s qualifications are as respected as those of their male counterparts is paramount in an evaluation of the challenges that they face.
I strongly dislike the usage of 'an evaluation', because it refers not to the general concept of assessment, to the ongoing thinking process, but to a one-time examination carried out by somebody (Who? When?).
From this perspective, 'evaluating' is much more preferable. Therefore,
D is incorrect.Quote:
(E) In an evaluation of the challenges faced by female politicians, the question of whether their qualifications are as respected as those of their male counterparts is paramount.
Same thing here - we have 'an evaluation', so
E is incorrect.-----------------------------------
To sum up,
the right answer is C.