The first woman, the first Californian, and the first Italian-American to hold the speakership of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, is one of the USA's highest ranking female elected officials and not only that, she is also the most powerful female politician in US history.
Nancy Pelosi was born in Baltimore and was the only girl and the youngest of seven children of Annunciata M. "Nancy" D'Alesandro and Thomas D'Alesandro Jr. Pelosi was exposed to politics from an early age owing to the involvement of his family with the Democrats. She attended her first Democratic National Convention at the age of 12.
In 1958, Pelosi graduated from the Institute of Notre Dame, an all-girls Catholic high school in Baltimore. She graduated from Trinity College in Washington, D.C., with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1962 and also interned for Senator Daniel Brewster (D-Maryland).
By 1969, Nancy had married a banker, Paul and had five children. She was a San Francisco housewife, but her leaning towards politics led her to start a Democratic Party club at her home, while dutifully raising her children.
Making her way up in politics, after being encouraged by a dying congresswoman to run for her seat, at the age of 47, she worked consistently and became the US representative from California in 1987, and held the position for over two decades.
After remaining a significant part of the House of Representatives for a long while, Pelosi was unanimously chosen as the Democratic candidate for Speaker on November 16, 2006.
On January 3, Pelosi defeated Republican John Boehner of Ohio, 233 votes to 202, in the election for Speaker of the House. Only in the first 100 hours of being speaker , Pelosi raised the minimum wage, enacted the 9/11 commission report, ended many tax subsidies to oil companies, and made new rules about lobbying. During her first speakership, she was instrumental in the passage of many of the Obama administration's landmark bills.
She was re-elected to the position in 2009 and lost the speakership in 2011 after the Republican Party won a majority in the House of Representatives in the 2010 elections. But she retained her role as leader of the House Democratic Caucus and returned to the role of House minority leader.
When the 116th Congress convened on January 3, 2019, Pelosi was again elected Speaker, becoming the first former Speaker to return to the post since Sam Rayburn in 1955.
She always remained vocal in her criticism of Trump's ways and has clashed with him quite a few times in the last years. The House of Representatives impeached Donald Trump under her leadership in December, 2019, and she has recently impeached him for a historical second time, on grounds of 'incitement of insurrection' leading to the storming of the US Capitol on January 6.
On January 3, 2021, Pelosi was reelected to a fourth term as Speaker of the House, which is expected to be her last, after a deal with progressives. Her career and her life undoubtedly reflect that she is a woman of morals who broke gender stereotypes and remains incredible at her job till this day.
