UWLP Blog - Poverty

Utah Women & Leadership Project has released the third of six white papers that share the results of a comprehensive statewide study conducted in the fall of 2024.

Researchers conducted a study to establish a baseline of public perceptions about the awareness, understanding, and attitudes around challenges Utah women and girls face. This summary includes poverty & homelessness, workforce, and home & family.

Although Utah’s rate of homelessness is less than the national rate, thousands of individuals and families experience homelessness each year. We must continue efforts to provide resources for those currently experiencing homelessness and develop strategies that ensure homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring.

Poverty is linked to many interrelated facets of overall wellbeing, and Utahns recognize the need to reduce poverty rates among those who struggle on a day-to-day basis.

The gender wage gap in Utah is one of the highest in the nation; women are much more likely to work minimum wage jobs, and women in Utah have lower levels of educational achievement—particularly at the bachelor’s degree level and higher—than women across the nation.

Overall, women in Utah live in poverty at a lower rate than the national average: Utah women (12.2%) vs. U.S. women (16%), and census data for 2015 ranks Utah 12th in the nation for the percentage of people living above the poverty line. The poverty rates are notably worse for certain groups.

There are many barriers preventing girls and young women from obtaining a post-secondary degree. Financial concerns are number one, and yet all of the data points to the fact that in our state, scholarships and financial aid are drastically underutilized. The other major barrier is more subtle, and may be more specific to Utah girls.