Way to have gender equality in the senate?

I came across this in my American Government textbook:

Representative Bella Abzug of New York was an outspoken advocate of a constitutional amendment that would change the composition of the Senate to fifty women and fifty men (one of each from every state).

This is an interesting idea. However, it's not necessarily a good idea. Even though it would be great to have more gender equality in governmental positions (along with every other aspect of modern life!), I feel that people should be elected based solely on ability, not gender. Some would argue though that the best of both genders would end up in the senate, thereby making it about ability. I also think that this leave out other forms of discrimination, such as race. It would be impossible to represent every minority group in a state in such a way.

What do you think?