SALT LAKE CITY — Women are gaining ground as political leaders nationally and in Utah, but the state still lags behind regarding the number who serve in leadership positions.
A research brief from the Utah Women and Leadership Project found the following:
- Utah is on the list of 9 states with no women serving in Congress. In total, 72.1% of the US Congress is male, while 27.9% is female.
There is currently one woman serving in a Utah Statewide Executive Office (SEO), Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson. Utah has never elected a female governor, although Olene Walker was appointed as governor from 2003-2005 after Mike Leavitt became Secretary of the US Department of Health & Human Services.
The only other woman to serve in a Utah statewide officer role was Jan Graham (D), who was attorney general from 1993–2001.
- Utah ranks 40th in the nation in terms of women serving in the state legislature, a ranking that fell from 32nd in 2020. In 2023, 20.7% of Utah’s state senators are female: 6 of 29 (5 D, 1 R), and 28.0% of the House of Representatives are female, or 21 of 75 (9 D, 12 R).
- Although Utah’s female legislators are more likely to be Democrat than Republican, Republican women have gained four seats since 2021.
- In the Utah’s legislature, five of 11 leadership positions in the House of Representatives and five of 11 leadership positions in the Senate are held by women.
- Overall, the legislative bodies of county commissions and councils in Utah are overwhelmingly held by men (79.3%), while 53.4% of the predominately full-time elected positions of clerk/auditor, treasurer, recorder, and assessor are held by women.
Only four Utah women have served in Congress since Utah’s statehood in 1896: Rep. Reva Z. Beck Bosone (1949–1953), Rep. Karen Shepherd (1993–1995), Rep. Enid Greene Waldholtz (1995–1997), and Rep. Mia Love (2015–2019). Two of the four served one two-year term. Utah has never elected a woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.
The brief noted that earlier research found that gender discrimination, poor treatment of female candidates who do run, biases in party politics, and poor treatment by the media have held back women from holding office.
