gmat_perfect wrote:That the new managing editor rose from the publications soft news sections to a leadership position is more of a landmark in the industry than her being a woman.

A. her being a woman
B. being a woman is
C. her womanhood
D. that she was a woman
E. that she is a woman

IMO C

That is required to maintain parallelism.
ABC out.

D uses past tense unnecesarily.

pick E

gmat_perfect wrote:That the new managing editor rose from the publications soft news sections to a leadership position is more of a landmark in the industry than her being a woman.

A. her being a woman
B. being a woman is
C. her womanhood
D. that she was a woman
E. that she is a woman

I think it is B

This seems one of the correct usage of Being in GMAT.

X is more of Y in Z than............W

The intended comparison is between X and W.

We need a helping verb to make the comparison logical. Only B has a helping verb.

So meaning of the sentence comes out as:

Being a woman is less of a landmark for the new editor than her leadership position is

gmat_perfect wrote:That the new managing editor rose from the publications soft news sections to a leadership position is more of a landmark in the industry than her being a woman.

A. her being a woman
B. being a woman is
C. her womanhood
D. that she was a woman
E. that she is a woman

We need that clause to maintain ||ism ~> ABC out

D uses wrong tense (She used to be a woman, really? Now, she is....what?:))

E remains

one more for E

Explanation:

The skeleton of the sentence:

That the new managing editor rose from the publications soft news sections to a leadership position is more of a landmark in the industry than her being a woman

=> X is more than Y (is).
=> That editor is more of X in the industry than that she (is a woman).

Concept tested:

1. Clause has been compared with a clause.  Here noun clause has been compared with another noun clause.
2. Clause + more than + Clause.

Take the following examples:
He is taller than Karim (is).
They are more knowledgeable than I (am).
He knows more about Shakespeare than does my brother who is not a student of literature.
He is knows more about Shakespeare than my brother does.

Rule: X is more of M in Z than Y is.

We can eliminate the "of" construction from the comparison.

The only option D is the contender of this sc. The main problem in D is the use of 'was'. It means the woman is longer woman. Not only this changes the meaning of the sentence, but it also makes the sentence awkward.
Answer is E.