The accession of Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House is a moment to reflect on — to appreciate — the advance that women have made in our public life. A generation or two ago it would have been hard to imagine a woman emerging as third in line of succession to the presidency.

It was 73 years ago that Frances Perkins became the first woman in any presidential Cabinet — and, we noted in the entry on her in Wikipedia, the first woman to enter the presidential line of succession (the labor secretary is number 11, after commerce, agriculture, interior, the attorney general, defense, treasury, state, the president pro tempore of the Senate, the speaker, and the vice president).

Yet today a quick count suggests that Mrs. Pelosi brings to five — Secretaries Peters, Chao, Rice, and Spellings, in addition to Mrs. Pelosi — the number of women currently in the 17-person line of succession.

We wouldn’t want to make too much of all this. Clearly the advance of women in America has been too slow, and we have no doubt that the glass ceiling is as all too real in public life as it is in the corporate world. But the failings of our society to make the most of the leadership potential of America’s women need not diminish the moment the country witnessed yesterday in the Congress.

Mrs. Pelosi and this newspaper don’t agree on huge areas of policy, and there will be plenty of time to deal with those issues. But each advance of the kind that Mrs. Pelosi has made makes it easier for the next woman aspiring to high office, and we have little doubt that New Yorkers share the excitement that she and the Congress, indeed, the country, felt as she gaveled the 110th House of Representatives into session.