Nancy Pelosi calls female US president in her lifetime unlikely: 'Marble ceiling' [View all]

Source: The Guardian

Mon 15 Dec 2025 05.00 EST
Last modified on Mon 15 Dec 2025 08.18 EST


Nancy Pelosi, the outgoing congresswoman and former House speaker, has conceded that she may not see a woman be elected US president in her lifetime.

The California Democrat said as much in a USA Today interview published on Sunday with her retirement looming after four decades in Congress – and invoked a turn of phrase referring to a metaphorical barrier impeding advancement in a profession that often confronts women and racial minorities.

“It’s not a glass ceiling. It’s a marble ceiling,” Pelosi told the publication while discussing the defeats her party colleagues Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris respectively endured against Donald Trump in the 2016 and 2024 presidential elections – as well as institutional resistance she met during her own rise on Capitol Hill.

“I thought certainly the American people are far ahead of the Congress in terms of their acceptance or their enthusiasm for a woman to be president of the United States.” She added: “I always thought that a woman would be president of the United States long before a woman would be speaker of the House.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/15/nancy-pelosi-female-president