TIME Magazine Cover Features Nancy Pelosi ‘62, Trinity Graduate and Democratic Leader

TIME magazine, for the first time ever, features a Trinity graduate on its cover: Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi, Class of 1962, Democratic Leader in the House of Representatives and the first (and only) woman to be elected Speaker of the House – the third highest elected office in the U.S. Read the TIME magazine cover story. 

In its feature profile, TIME notes: “Pelosi is one of the most consequential political figures of her generation.”

In a message to the Trinity community, President Pat McGuire wrote: “Whatever your political point of view, the Trinity family can take rightful pride in Leader Pelosi’s accomplishments and persistence. Trinity’s mission for 120 years has been all about teaching women how to be leaders, how to believe that you are truly able to be the person to stand up and be counted, to do what others lack the courage or willpower or smarts to do. Nancy Pelosi is one of many exemplars of successful Trinity Women who saw a need for leadership and who had the confidence, drive and fortitude – persistence – to stick with the challenges of leadership for public purpose.”

President McGuire added: “The article provides an ample discussion of the challenges that women leaders face, even today. Women leaders, especially in the political arena, are judged by a different set of standards than their male counterparts.  These paragraphs are especially pungent on this topic.”

• “It seems to enrage people that Pelosi feels entitled to things: money, power, respect. Of course it does–a woman is always held responsible for her reputation. Clinton, in her years running for President, was asked over and over again some version of the question, Why do you think people don’t like you?… A powerful woman is always defined less by what she has done than by how she makes people feel.”
• “Pelosi isn’t humble. Many women, she thinks, are afraid to show pride and need to see an example of confidence. Besides, making sure you get your due isn’t something you can delegate. One former Pelosi aide told me everything she does is rooted in this combination of obligation and entitlement: the sense that someone ought to do something, and she is the only one who can do it. Pelosi seems to feel no need to apologize for her status in the way women are expected to and men rarely are. Perhaps the assertion of ego by a woman is the most radical act there is: the refusal to submit or be subordinate.”