This Is What a Speaker Looks Like
Nancy Pelosi has finally cracked the marble ceiling of the Capitol. Now what will she do with the unprecedented power she has earned?

Ms. is proud to be the first magazine to feature on its cover Nancy Pelosi, the first woman and first self-identified feminist Speaker of the House.   This 2002 Ms. Woman of the Year gives Ms. an exclusive interview in our cover story, “This Is What A Speaker Looks Like,” by Marie Cocco, in which we focus on her substance, rather than her clothes and jewelry.

“My mother was sort of the driving force,” Pelosi told Ms. “My mother was very committed and passionate about the issues—about fairness in the economy, and housing... She had a whole army of women that she could mobilize who could act upon any of the issues. She was organization!”

Pelosi tells Ms. she believes that women's concerns are the nation's main concerns: national security, the economy and the environment. The issues usually identified with women—quality child care and the like--”should be everybody's issues,” she explained. “I guess they're called women's issues because if women did not focus on them there really wouldn't be any chance of [getting something done].”  Before she even ran for Congress, Pelosi encouraged other women to seek political office, and gave them fundraising and organizational help along the way.

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