The elevation of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi of California to Speaker of the 116th United States House marks only the second time in our history that a woman has acceded to the third highest office in the land. It’s all the more remarkable for the fact that the first woman to be Speaker was also Mrs. Pelosi. It’s a testament not only to her capacity for leadership but also her staying power.

Twelve years ago we marked her first accession to House leadership with an editorial headlined “Madam Speaker.” We called it “a moment to reflect on — to appreciate — the advance that women have made in our public life.” A generation ago, we noted, it would have been hard to imagine a woman as third in line of presidential succession. It was but 73 years since a woman had joined any cabinet.

That was Frances Perkins, labor secretary under FDR. Yet by the time Mrs. Pelosi emerged as Speaker there were, in addition to her, four other women in the line of presidential succession. They were, then, Secretaries Mary Peters (transportation), Elaine Chao (labor), Condoleezza Rice (state), and Margaret Spellings (education). Today there are three, Secretaries Chao, Betsey De Vos, and Kirstjen Nielsen.

“Clearly the advance of women in America has been too slow,” we wrote in 2012, when we also noted that “the glass ceiling is as all too real in public life as it is in the corporate world.” Women have steadily been advancing in the Congress. The percentage of women in the 116th Congress will be a record 23%. It’s still shockingly low given that we’re in the 21st century.

Americans, columnist Peter Beinart suggests in the Atlantic this week, “still judge women politicians far more harshly than they judge their male competitors.” He wants newspapermen and women to “name that unfairness.” (Let’s start with Sarah Palin, we say.) In any event, all eyes are on Mrs. Pelosi. It’s hard to imagine any Speaker picking up the House gavel at a more dramatic time of testing.

Just to underline the point — Mrs. Pelosi returns as Speaker amid a drive by her party to oust the President. We are not making any prediction about that one way or another. If they are successful, though, Vice President Pence would become President. He would then name a new vice president to take office only after being approved by both houses of Congress. Since one house is controlled by the GOP and the other by the Democrats, it could be a while that Mrs. Pelosi’s position in the line of succession would be first.