Nancy Pelosi isn’t sure a woman will be elected president ‘in my lifetime’

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said women who want to reach higher office face not just a “glass ceiling” but a much tougher “marble ceiling.”

during a Interview with USA today’s In an appearance on Saturday, Pelosi was asked by Susan Page whether she believed a woman would be elected president in her lifetime.

“I certainly hope so,” he replied. “I always thought a woman would be President of the United States long before a woman would be Speaker of the House of Representatives.”

Pelosi predicted that a woman will be elected to the Oval Office in the next generation. “I think it’s probably going to be a woman…maybe not in my lifetime, but in this next generation,” she told Page.

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The California Democrat recalled that the men who run things — or “poor babies,” as he calls them — were less than welcoming to him upon entering Congress.

“This isn’t a glass ceiling, it’s a marble ceiling,” Pelosi told Page. “I think the American people are certainly way ahead of Congress in terms of their acceptance or enthusiasm for a woman to be President of the United States.”

Pelosi, who became the nation’s first female speaker nearly 20 years ago, has seen two women nominated for president; Hillary Clinton in 2016 and former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, both defeated by President Donald Trump.

According to USA Today, Clinton’s loss to Trump in 2016 was the deciding factor in Pelosi’s decision to postpone her planned retirement. The publication noted that these events “tempered Pelosi’s optimism, or at least his schedule for meeting a woman in the Oval Office.”

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Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, speaks during a press conference in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on November 19, 2024 (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Last month, Pelosi expressed a similar sentiment about a future female president, pushing back on Michelle Obama’s recent claim that Americans are “not ready” to elect a woman to the White House.

When CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked if he agreed with the previous view. First Lady’s commentsPelosi questioned why a female commander in chief was out of the question.

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“I hope… I mean, I respect her, and I know it’s a view that we all regret, but we… I think we need to change. The truth is, I’ve heard every excuse in the book, you know, ‘I’m not sure a woman can be commander in chief.’ So why not?” he asked. “‘I served in the military.’ Well, okay. And so? Women also serve in the military.”

The former House Speaker added that “long before there was a woman speaker in the House of Representatives, she always thought we would have a woman president” and that she “did not plan on being speaker.”

After Pelosi’s statement, Cooper asked why she believed there would be a female president before a female speaker.

Representative Nancy Pelosi speaks with members of the media following a classified briefing on TikTok at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, March 12, 2024 in Washington, DC, USA. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Because I thought the American people were much more ready for a female president,” Pelosi said. “Just the thought of that is so exciting, and the message it sends to the world is so exciting. Faster than a female speaker could ever be here, you could say it’s been a male-dominated place for hundreds of years, and when I ran for leadership, I was like, ‘Who said she could run?’ they said.

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“Oh, my poor babies. I’m not waiting for you to tell me I can run,” she added.

Pelosi argued that there is a “peerarchy” in Washington of men who feel they are entitled to certain positions within the government, and that it “really still exists on the Republican side.”