Utah’s position on gender equality in politics

Salt Lake City, Utah – Over the past few weeks, politics has been a major topic both locally and nationally. From executive orders in Washington, D.C., to regular updates on Utah’s Capitol Hill. We were intrigued by recent research on women’s status in Utah politics and set out to learn more.

Utah was recently named as the fourth-best state to live in by WalletHub. The Beehive State performed better than average on a number of categories, but it falls short on one: gender equity. Women’s representation in elected office is part of that.

Reports on women’s political standing were first published by the Utah State University Utah Women and Leadership Project (UWLP) in 2014. Updates were made in 2017 and every year since 2021.

The UWLP reports that women make up 16.7% of Utah’s congressional delegation. That is less than the national average of 28.4% of women in Congress. Women make up 29.8% of the state legislature’s members. 34.4% is the national average.

According to Susan Madsen of the Utah Women and Leadership Project, significant local issues will not improve until men and women are equally represented. “We know there’s a big difference between men and women we know from the research that we care about certain policies in different ways our priorities are different so when you don’t have more equal numbers of men and women in the legislature in our Congress delegation and city councils whatever it might be you really do not represent the population the way it needs to be represented,” Madsen said.

In Utah, there are areas where the number of representatives is rising. Women occupy 40% of Utah’s executive office seats statewide. That figure is only 31.6% nationwide.

Additionally, the majority of elected auditors, clerks, recorders, and treasurers are women.

Women are also represented as mayors in three of Utah’s four major cities.