Three years of cohorts recognized as women champions and a study on how to better include women in Utah’s workforce will conclude at the end of the year. The Utah Women & Leadership Project announced the final cohort of businesses that have made significant efforts and strides in helping women succeed in the workplace and leadership roles in 2025.
“The three-year 100 Companies Championing Women Initiative has been an important effort to raise awareness in Utah on the various ways companies can advance women and support families,” said Susan Madsen, the Utah Women & Leadership Project’s founder and director.
The list includes companies across all industries and can be found on the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity website, business.utah.gov/in-utah/100-ccw/. The whole research and policy brief can be found online at usu.edu/uwlp/research/briefs.
The study looked at three main characteristics of companies that applied for the recognition, including specific categories focused on family-specific policies, flexible work, as well as professional development and leadership opportunities.
According to the study, the most common women-friendly policies being adopted by Utah companies pertain to flexible work, including flexible hours offered by 94 percent of the companies and remote work offered by 83 percent. No doubt these policies were helped along by COVID-19.
Pay equity and leadership growth for women are also highly prioritized in the 100 companies, with 82 percent of companies implementing practices to reduce disparities in pay and 72 percent of companies looking to diversify management, including 67 percent with women on their board of directors (which has grown 9 percent since 2024).
Katy Higgins, founder of True Pros HVAC — one of the 100 companies recognized — emphasizes that while women make up only 2 percent to 3 percent of the trade workforce nationally, they have the potential to drive significant change.
“I think having a place where women feel comfortable calling to find out about a job — it’s just the start. I think that’s the hardest part: them asking the question, picking up the phone, knowing who to call, and being taken seriously,” Higgins said.
At True Pros, 35 percent of the team is female, an indicator of the company’s commitment to training employees, especially women, from the beginning.
Higgins is now seeking sponsors to “implement a program where we get applicants or scholarship winners, that maybe someone can help me with the training, and then we could do it on a larger scale.” She believes that sponsorships will help grow this initiative and make it more sustainable, spreading opportunity to even more women in the trades.
Big financial investments, like the one Higgins is referring to, or structural changes, seem to be a roadblock to further adopting policies to help female employees stay in the workforce.
The least common policies being offered include job-sharing (5 percent), return-to-work programs (17 percent), adoption and fertility benefits (20 percent), child care support (25 percent) and part-time benefits (25 percent).
In the conclusion of the study, it notes that while the list only includes “100 of tens of thousands of companies” operating in Utah, it “provides a sampling of what forward-thinking Utah businesses of all sizes are doing to support employees and their families.”
“By highlighting businesses around the state that have incorporated family-friendly policies, as well as implemented developmental programs to advance women, the 2025 100 CCW initiative has provided information about best practices that companies — large or small — can consider.”
“I encourage Utah businesses and organizations to adopt inclusive, family-supportive strategies that enable every employee to flourish,” said Madsen. “Expanding opportunities and leadership for women not only advances equality but also fortifies families, strengthens the workforce, and secures a more resilient and prosperous economic future for our state.”