Nancy Pelosi’s first trip to Capitol Hill came when she accompanied her father, former Maryland Rep. Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., to one of his swearing-in ceremonies during his eight years as a congressman. When he entered the House, in 1939, there were just eight women representatives.
“When I came to Congress many years later, there were only 23, so there wasn't much progress made from the ‘40s to the ‘80s,” Pelosi said, in an exclusive interview with Spectrum News, for Women’s History Month. “We made a decision and said, ‘This is ridiculous, 23 women out of 435, that's not representative of our country and it's not fair.’”
Pelosi was elected to Congress in 1987, after serving in the California Democratic Party for decades. She became House minority whip in 2002 — the first woman to hold that position in either party or chamber — and was elected House minority leader a year later.
“I said, this is now a different place where we're going to put diversity. We want to see diversity in leadership roles in the committee and staffing and the committee and the rest,” she recalled.
In 2007, 68 years after her father became a congressman, Pelosi became the first woman House speaker.
“It wasn't really a glass ceiling here, it was a marble ceiling. There had been, for over 200 years, a pecking order,” Pelosi said. “And they all had an agreement among themselves, the men, as to who would be next. So when I was running, it was ‘Who said she could run?’”
Pelosi helped to elevate women to hold the chair in powerful House committees, such as the Rules and Administration committees. There are now 126 women in the House, including 92 Democrats - many of whom Pelosi helped to get there.
“If you want to win elections, women are great leaders to help you do that,” Pelosi said.
The key to women running for office, she said, is authenticity.
“Be who you are, the only person like you who has ever existed in the history of the world. Take great pride in that and recognize your power,” Pelosi said. “Know your power, know your why, know why you want to do this. Because it's rough. This is not for the faint of heart. It's rough.”
Pelosi knows all too well that political service is a contact sport — and she knows what it’s like when those who oppose, hate and fear her go too far. Within the last three years, her life was threatened by insurrectionists on Jan. 6th, 2021 ("They said they're going to put a bullet in my friggin head,” Pelosi recalled,) and her husband, Paul, suffered a fractured skull from a hammer-wielding attacker who broke into their San Francisco home in 2022.
“That’s what I tell [members of Congress],” she said. “We stepped into the arena, but our families didn’t, and … it shouldn't happen that way. And so we have to, if we win this election, do so in a unifying way to bring people together.”
Pelosi announced after the 2022 election that she would end her 20 years in House leadership (which included eight years as speaker), but keep her seat. In the process, she blazed a trail again, becoming Speaker Emerita Pelosi, the first House member with such a title.
“When they asked me what ‘emerita’ means, I said it means happiness,” she said. “For 20 years as leader or speaker, I was responsible every day for what was on the floor from a Democratic or the whole House standpoint and all, shall we say, of the exuberance that goes into that.”
Pelosi’s departure provided an opening for a new generation of leadership, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif. Pelosi said she is always ready to help as needed, but she has taken a hands-off approach when it comes to her successors.
“I'm not going to be the mother-in-law in the kitchen saying ‘my son likes the dressing this way’ to them,” she laughed.
Pelosi said two things have kept her going in Congress after nearly 40 years: Chocolate (“very dark chocolate — chocolate ice cream for breakfast”) and the urgency of service.
“My 'why' is the one in five children in America that goes to sleep hungry at night, who live in poverty and go to sleep hungry at night. And I just couldn't [stand], in the greatest country that ever existed in the history of the world, that that would be the case,” she said.
But Pelosi said she had one more reason to stay in Congress.
“We have to elect Joe Biden President of the United States,” she said. “We have to elect a Democratic Congress. We just must. That means House and Senate. So my ability to do that is enhanced by still being here.”
Voters have expressed concerns about Biden’s age (at 81, he’s the oldest president in U.S. history). Pelosi said she doesn’t see it as a problem.
“Frankly, he’s younger than I am,” said Pelosi, who celebrated her 84th birthday earlier this week. She calls Biden’s age a benefit, not a hindrance — citing his tenure in the Senate, as vice president and as president.
“You have improved judgment, and this is a president … who has a beautiful vision for the future. He knows why he wants to do this. He knows the subject matter. He's been here a long time. So he knows what has worked, what hasn't and what the possibilities are,” Pelosi said.
“[Biden’s] not that much older than what's his name, but nobody seems to make a fuss about what's his name,” Pelosi said, referring to Biden’s former and current opponent, 77-year-old former President Donald Trump, whose name Pelosi said she does not like to say. "And that's just really what is so funny to me — including the press — just always saying, ‘Well, he's old now.’ Yeah, the other guy's old too.”
“I understand how people would rather see somebody younger, but Joe Biden is doing fabulously well in the primaries, so people are voting for him even though they'd rather be younger,” she added.