After her election to Congress in 1987, she accumulated more and more power, eventually rising to become Speaker of the House in 2007, the first and only woman to hold that office.

Nancy Pelosi is bringing her history-making career in the U.S. House to an end, but she leaves a linguistic legacy in Congress and beyond.

Pelosi, a Democrat who was the first woman in the speaker’s office and who has represented San Francisco for nearly 40 years, said she would finish out her final year in office.