By Becky Jacobs
Utah is routinely labeled as the worst state for women’s equality, and that ranking is often due to these factors in the lives of women who live here:
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They earn less, due to the gender wage gap.
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They have less education, based on how many women earn a bachelor’s degree or higher.
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They are less represented, considering the number of women serving in the state legislature.
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They lead less often, based on how many women are in managerial and professional occupations.
Whenever state-by-state comparisons of the nation’s women are released, those four categories are generally key in the rankings, according to Susan Madsen, founder and director of Utah State University’s Utah Women and Leadership Project.
The Salt Lake Tribune now has dug into these numbers going back as many years as data were available, to see how persistent these trends have been — and whether they are changing over time.
