Why was Pelosi so much older as speaker than Paul Ryan? [View all]

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By any measure, Pelosi was older than most people when elevated to the Speakership. She was 62 when she became minority leader in 2003, and 66 when she was made Speaker in 2007. By contrast, Paul Ryan was 45 when he was made Speaker in 2017. So surely she was in office a whole bunch longer when we was made minority leader. Nope, she was in office slightly less than 16 years and he was in office for over 17 years when he was made speaker. So why the age difference. Well, Pelosi couldn't run when she was younger, her first election was in 1987 when she was 47. His was in 1998 when he was 28. Why the difference. Well both of them have children and she had to wait for hers to grow up, he didn't. The reason Pelosi was so much older when she became party leader than he was is the sexist notion that women but not men have to center their work around their children. Funny how all of the she needs to go because she is old never mention just why she is so much older than most people who become speaker.