REPRESENTATIVE NANCY PELOSI

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives

“We have to be a model to women. Do not fear any of this, have no fear. Know your own power. Be yourself. Go out there and fight the fight, because you know your why. You know why you decided to get into the arena. You know what you care about. You know how to get a job done, and you can draw support from other people.”

Nancy Pelosi came from a well-known political family in Baltimore, but as the only girl in the family, she was not expected to be an elected political leader. Women in the 1950s and ’60s were not generally expected to run for office, let alone become national political leaders.

But Pelosi had some different ideas. After her five children were essentially grown, she ran for Congress and, after serving for almost twenty years, she became the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

When the Democrats in the House lost their majority in the 2010 midterm elections, she remained their leader and was elected again as Speaker when they regained the majority in 2018. No woman in American political life has held as much power for as long as Nancy Pelosi.

How did she accrue so much power? She recognized that increasing power in Congress was derived from the ability to raise an enormous level of campaign contributions for other members. And from the time Nancy Pelosi became the House Democrats’ leader, she also mastered the necessary skill of lining up votes and enforcing discipline among the troops. She used these skills to ensure the difficult-to-achieve congressional passage of the Affordable Care Act.

I have known the Speaker for a good many years. She attends many of the Kennedy Center’s signature events, as well as events in which I am involved at the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress. We have also bonded a bit because we share a hometown—Baltimore—and an affection for some of its traditions.

How did she rise from housewife and mother of five to be a member of the House of Representatives (from her adopted city, San Francisco) to Speaker of the House, and the most politically powerful, influential, and impactful woman in the country’s nearly 250-year history? I asked Speaker Pelosi these questions and many others before a very large audience at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., in March 2019.

The Speaker recounts that she went into elective politics to solve social problems—such as the fact that one in five children in the country lives in poverty—and that she has stayed in politics for the same reason. But there is no doubt she also stays in the political arena to serve as a role model for women. She makes clear that she knows other women are watching her, and that she is regularly fighting as hard as she can for the causes in which she believes.

Nancy Pelosi is trying, as she relates in the interview, to show that women can be effective leaders if they get in the arena and use their skills to show how to get the job done. That type of strong leadership is what Speaker Pelosi no doubt felt she was showing as she led the House of Representatives’ historic effort in 2019 to impeach President Donald J. Trump, and as she led the House’s unprecedented efforts in 2020 to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.