By Sara Israelsen-Hartley

In fact, nearly 1 in 3 Utah women age 25 and older has some college education but no degree, compared with slightly more than 1 in 5 women nationally, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

Nationally, women are graduating with bachelor’s degrees at statistically similar rates as men, and in Utah, more womenwere enrolled in college than men in 2016, but Utah women still lag 4.6 percentagepoints behind men in finishing college with a bachelor’s degree.

This number alone is a driving factor in Utah’s wage gap, the second largest in the nation — although the gap requires a bit of unpacking — because without higher education, women often can’t compete for the higher paying jobs or pursue jobs they would prefer, say economic experts and researchers.

>>Read more