4 minute read
Nancy Pelosi: a Feminist Icon
- Elizabeth K.
(wikimedia.commons.com)
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Nancy Patricia d’Alesandro was born on the 26th of March 1940 in Baltimore to Thomas and Anunciata d’Alesandro, both of Italian descent. She was exposed to political life at a very young age, her father being a Democratic congressman, and says that “People knew (...) where Congressman D'Alesandro lived, and would line up at our door, looking for help". At the age of 12 she attended her first Democratic National Convention and even attended John Kennedy’s inauguration. At 18 she graduated from the Institute of Notre-Dame, an all-girls catholic high school, and at 22 years old received a degree in political science from Trinity Washington University, located in Washington, D.C. In her early twenties she worked as an intern in the office of Senator Daniel Brewster of Maryland, along with Steny Hoyer whom, years later, she would meet again in the U.S. House of Representatives. It was during the time in which she worked with Sen. Brewster as a receptionist that she first encountered the double standards laid for women in the political world.
Whilst attending college, she met her husband Paul Francis Pelosi and they married in Baltimore, before moving to New York and, shortly thereafter, San Francisco. There, she befriended Phillip Burton, a then-congressman, and started a Democratic Party Club. It was at this point that she was appointed to the library commission of San Francisco, her first public position. In 1976 she was hired to work for Jerry Brown’s presidential campaign and, that same year, was elected as a Democratic National Committee member. A year later she was elected party chair, before becoming the head of the California Democratic Party in 1981. There, she stayed out of the spotlight, working mostly in recruiting candidates and fundraising. She later served as the Committee Host Chairwoman of the San Francisco Democratic National Convention, and after that as the finance chair of Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee until 1986.
Pelosi became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1987, the same year her youngest child, Alexandra Pelosi, left for college. Sala Burton, the incumbent for the seat, who had previously succeeded her husband, contracted cancer and didn’t run for reelection. Sala personally chose Pelosi as her successor and guaranteed her the support of her family's contacts. She died in early 1987, and the first round of the special elections to fill her seat took place in April. In the democratic primaries, Pelosi narrowly defeated Harry Britt. In the election in early June, she defeated Republican candidate Harriet Ross, securing her seat. She officially took office on June 9th 1987. She hosted no less than a hundred house parties during her campaign, and raised over 1 million dollars in the span of seven weeks. A year later she was reelected in the regular elections, and has consistently won reelection since then, most recently last year, where she
defeated her challenger Sahid Buttar, also a Democrat. A little over a decade later, in 2001, Pelosi was chosen to serve as the House minority whip, a symbolic move as she became the first woman in US history to do so. In 2002 she became House minority leader, her first step into the national spotlight. During the 2006 elections Democrats won the house, with a majority of 233 seats to 202. She was picked as the Democratic candidate for Speaker of the House and was elected unanimously by all the representatives of her party. She was officially sworn in on the 4th of January 2007, once again being the first woman to hold the position. She is widely credited for passing President’s Obama health care reform act in 2009, and was reelected in 2010, albeit as House Minority Leader after Republicans regained control of the House. One of her greatest tests came in 2016, when her position as Minority leader was challenged by Tim Ryan: she defeated him by 71 votes and maintained her post. In the 2018 elections, Democrats regained control of the House for the first time in over 8 years, and she regained her place as Speaker in early January of 2019. She had a tumultuous relationship with former President Donald Trump: she announced in the fall of 2019 the beginning of an impeachment inquiry linked to the TrumpUkraine scandal. She was reelected as Speaker on the 3rd of January of 2021, and has since then spearheaded a second impeachment of Donald Trump.
She is the first woman to ever hold such a leadership post in a major political party, and has helped pave the way for a new generation of politics. Considered to be the most powerful woman in US politics before the election of Kamala Harris to the vice-presidency, she is credited with leading the movement towards a more gender-equal vision of government.
