The Status of Women in Utah Politics

The Center for American Progress recently released a report titled, “The State of Women in America: A 50-State Analysis of How Women Are Faring Across the Nation.” This September 2013 document ranked Utah last in terms of women being in positions of decision making and leadership. The focus was on both the percentage of women in elected office (state and national levels) and also women holding private sector management positions, but it did not provide the depth needed to fully understand the issue. To provide leaders and residents with more detailed research, four 2014 briefs will be released that compare Utah with national data on the status of women and leadership in politics, education, nonprofit, and business.

Congress

Utah has a total of six seats in its national delegation (two senators and four representatives). Utah has not had a woman elected to Congress since 1995. Only three Utah women have served in Congress since its statehood: Rep. Reva Z. Beck Bosone (1949-1953), Rep. Karen Shepherd (1993-1995), and Rep. Enid Green Waldhotz (1995-1997).  Two of these three women only served one two-year term. Utah has never elected a woman to serve in the U.S. Senate and is currently one of the 15 states that do not have any women serving in Congress.

Statewide Executive Offices

There are currently no women serving in Utah statewide executive offices. Throughout history, Utah has never elected a woman to serve as governor. However, Utah has had one female governor and lieutenant governor. Olene Walker served as lieutenant governor to Mike Leavitt from 1993-2003, until he was nominated by the Bush Administration to serve as the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. She was then appointed as governor to serve until the end of Leavitt’s term from 2003-2005. She sought re-election, but did not win the Republican nomination at convention. The only other woman to serve in a Utah statewide officer role was Jan Graham (D), who was attorney general from 1993-2001.

State Legislatures

Utah is ranked 46th in the nation in terms of women serving in the state legislature. Currently, 17% of the Utah senators (5 of 29), and 16% of the House of Representatives (12 of 75) are female. Overall, only 16.3% of Utah legislators are women. It is interesting to note that in 1971, 8.2% of Utah state legislators were women, while at the national level only 4.5% of seats were held by women. By 1981 that trend had reversed. In Utah, data also show that it is much more likely to find female legislators in the Democrat than Republican ranks.

Mayors

The Utah League of Cities and Towns lists 245 municipalities in the state. Of these, 161 had websites that listed information about its mayor. Of the 161 Utah mayors researched, 12 seats (7%) were held by women and 149 by men. Of those 12 mayors, only three represent cities with populations of 30,000 or more. Most female mayors in Utah serve cities with populations of 10,000 or less. Available national data only track the gender of mayors in cities containing populations of 30,000 or more.

Voter Participation

Utah was the second state to give women the right to vote, and Utah women were the first females to vote in a national election. Data suggest that slightly more Utah women vote than men. For example, in 1996 Utah had the highest women’s turnout in the nation with 76% of eligible women voting in that election. Unfortunately, more recent data on Utah turnout rates by gender are not available; however, Utah Colleges Exit Poll data can provide some insight into what percentage of voters coming out of the polling places were male and female. In 2004, 48% of these individuals in Utah were male and 52% were female (margin of error is ±1.13), and in 2008, 48.3% were male and 51.7% were female (margin of error of ±1.27).29 Although these data suggest that, in terms of relative proportions, the gender gap for voting may be slightly smaller in Utah than the rest of the country, somewhat more Utah women may be voting than Utah men.

Moving the Needle

One study found that a key factor in explaining the gender gap was that women were far less likely than men to be encouraged to run for office. Interestingly, other researchers discovered that women were actually more likely than men to run for their first elected office because they were recruited. This was the primary response in one survey where participants were asked about their decisions to seek office The bottom-line is this: women are encouraged less often to run for office, but when they are encouraged and/or recruited they are more likely to step forward.

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To learn more about The Status of Women in Utah Politics read the entire brief.