Guest Blog--Know Your Power

Speaker Nancy Pelosi's personal and political history, Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters, is an interesting read about how Pelosi became the first woman Speaker of the US House of Representatives. I was recently working on Capitol Hill and grew to greatly admire Speaker Pelosi. Although I found Know Your Power not to be very inspiring or eloquent, it is a straightforward biography about this mother of five and her pathway to the most powerful position in Congress.

Pelosi was raised in a very political family in Baltimore where her father, Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr., was a member of the US Congress and later mayor of Baltimore. Pelosi was surrounded by powerful and influential people throughout her life and almost seemed destined to eventually run for office. Married at a young age of 23 to San Franciscan Paul Pelosi, Pelosi put aside her plans to attend law school so she could start a family. The Pelosis had five children in six years, and Nancy Pelosi became a stay-at-home mom until her youngest was in high school and Pelosi was voted into the US Congress.

Know Your Power also dives into the politics of politics, something that may not appeal to all people. I personally love to hear about the craziness of Capitol Hill but wish Pelosi had given more details on her feelings about the difficulties of being a woman and a member of Congress, rather than just positives. Reading Know Your Power did leave me feeling that if Nancy Pelosi can become the first woman Speaker of the House, I can definitely work toward all of my goals and dreams, including family, education, and civic service.