In 2014, the Utah Women & Leadership Project (UWLP) released a research and policy brief titled “The Status of Women Leaders in Utah Business.” The document was one of four released in 2014 that focused on understanding the status of women’s leadership in politics, education, nonprofits, andbusiness. This brief provides a four-year update to determine […]

In 2014, the Utah Women & Leadership Project team collected data from various sources to understand some of the issues in Utah regarding women, confidence, and leadership. Why does this matter? Utah consistently ranks at or near the bottom of national studies on the status of women. For example, in 2013, the Center for American […]

Research has shown that most managers and top leadershipteams do not fully realize the value of having women in keypositions, and this is the case across all sectors, includingbusiness, government, political, nonprofit, K-12 and highereducation, religious, and community. Depending on the entity, this may include women in both paid and unpaid rolesranging from positions such […]

One way to support and advance women in organizational settings is to study the elements, strategies, and interventions that appear to be working. One of many critical elements is the role that men play as allies and advocates for women. The purpose of this brief is to share the findings of a recent study that […]

National media and scholars have puzzled over the high levels of plastic surgery among Utah women, and a national magazine even called Salt Lake City the “Vainest City in America.” Many wonder why Salt Lake City, capital of one of the most religious states in the nation, would employ more plastic surgeons per capita than […]

Childcare is an important consideration for millions of American families; 71% of all women with children under 18 are in the labor force,comprising one-third of the total female workforce in the U.S. Further, childcare costs are becoming increasingly burdensome; in the U.S. generally, and in 33 states specifically (including Utah), the annual cost of childcare […]

Over the past half-century or so, Utah women’s participation in the labor force has steadily increased at a rate of about 8% per decade. According to the most recent (2015) U.S. Census Bureau estimates, women in Utah make up 43.9% of the state workforce, which is slightly lower than the U.S. women’s share of the […]

In Utah, a woman earns approximately 71 cents per dollar that a man earns (though reports vary, several recent national studies show a gap between 70–71 cents), and according to the American Association for University Women, we have the nation’s fourth-largest gender wage gap for year-round full-time workers. Read the full snapshot here: https://www.uvu.edu/uwlp/docs/uwsgenderwagegap.pdf

The global average for a women’s daily unpaid work is 4 hours and 47 minutes vs. 1 hour and 30 minutes for men. The gap between men’s and women’s unpaid work is largest in many developing nations, yet it remains significant in the United States, and the gap in Utah is higher than the national average. […]

Although Utahans in general experience lower rates of poverty than the national average (11.3% in Utah vs. 14.7% nationwide), 1 Utah women are more likely than Utah men to live in poverty, especially women who are heads of households and/or single parents.2 Many factors influence the levels of poverty among Utah women. The gender wage […]