https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/08/24/ ... rst-state/For the third year in a row, Utah has been named the worst state for women’s equality, and it continues to lag far behind the state ranked 49th — Idaho.
WalletHub released its “2020′s Best & Worst States for Women’s Equality” on Monday, evaluating states on workplace environment, education, health and political empowerment. There was a nearly 50-point gap in the total scores between the top state — Hawaii — at 75.13 and Utah’s score of 25.74.
“It’s not shocking” to see Utah in last place, again, said Susan Madsen, founder and director of the Utah Women and Leadership Project at Utah State University, “but it’s a bit disappointing.”
Not a surprise, not a coincidence.
“If we still do the same things we’ve been doing,” Utah won’t see any big changes in these types of rankings, she said. There have to be “serious” efforts and initiatives supported by government and business leaders to analyze the underlying issues.
“Unless we get more vocal on these things and have women and men stand up and say it’s time to make these changes,” Madsen said, “... things are not going to change anytime soon.”
Utah regularly has one of the worst gender wage gaps in the country. Utah women earn 70 cents for every dollar earned by men, while women nationally earn 80 cents per dollar, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. And the gap grows when looking at women of color. Hispanic women in Utah earn 47% of what white men earn, according to the institute.