Entering its third year, “A Bolder Way Forward” is on firmer ground as it works to improve the lives of Utah girls and women by the year 2030.
Leaders and participants in the movement recently gathered in Midvale to assess its progress and spell out actions to reach that goal. A common theme was to boost awareness about the problems that Utah girls and women face — many of them economic — and the work being done to address them.
At the third annual Bolder Way Forward Summit, Susan Madsen, founding director of the Women & Leadership Project at Utah State University, the backbone organization of the movement, said issues related to violence, sexual abuse, child sexual abuse, domestic violence and others need a brighter spotlight.
“We’ve buried our heads in the sand, right?” she told the audience at the Zions Bancorporation Technology Center. “We’ve been sleeping on some of these issues and it’s like we need to wake up. You have woken up in terms of not sleeping, but we have to make sure that everyone else is aware of these things.”
Movement leaders point to national and statewide studies that continue to show that women and girls in Utah are not thriving in critical areas, including having low levels of women’s leadership representation in nearly all domains susch as politics and business.
Madsen said the movement has spent its first two years establishing a foundation for change, including setting up county coalitions, partners, impact teams and leaders of certain areas of focus, called “spokes.” Those gathered in Midvale, Madsen said, have hope or want to have more hope for improvements.
“This is why we’re here: We want hope for better things,” she said. “Hope for change. Hope to just do the things that make sure that our girls and women and their families are better thriving.”
A key, she added, is being strategic. “When we do societal change, we kind of like sometimes throw spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks,” Madsen said. “We don’t have time for that. It’s not about doing more stuff; it’s about doing the right stuff and being strategic.”
She presented the movement’s 12 overarching goals for its third year and stressed that the movement is not a protest. “We want to continue to be in the space of kindness and respect and dignity… to be able to lift girls and women and to lift families, and that includes boys and men,” she said.
Among the spokes with economic/business elements are:
• Sexual harassment. Helen Knaggs, a spoke leader, said a 2024 Bolder Way Forward survey indicated that 83.5 percent of Utahns say that sexual harassment a problem in the state but 60 percent of Utahns don’t believe their organization will deal with it appropriately. The economic impact of sexual harassment is costing $2.6 billion in lost productivity in the U.S., she said.
Among the priorities is to raise awareness and help Utahns understand it is a big problem in the state.
“We are here to break down the misconception that this does not exist in the state of Utah. It does exist. It’s a problem,” Knaggs said.
She urged audience members to speak up if they see sexual harassment in their workplaces. “Find out what policies and practices can be put in place so that your business, your organization, can create a culture where we can all thrive when we participate in a society as equal contributors,” Knaggs said.
• Entrepreneurship. Spoke leader Ann Marie Wallace called for accelerated growth and strengthening of women-owned businesses in Utah. A public proclamation, “a bold rally cry,” will be unveiled in November, urging people to champion, invest in and buy women-owned businesses.
“While Utah has one of the highest rates of women’s entrepreneurship compared to other women of other states, there’s a significant gap in business scale compared to our male counterparts: our brothers, our husbands, our grandfathers, even,” Wallace said.
“Women-owned businesses are far more likely to remain small, to be underfunded and under-resourced, in contrast to male-owned businesses, which grow larger, generate more revenue and attract more capital. This disparity limits the economic potential of women and holds back Utah’s broader economic growth.”
• Organizational strategies and workplace culture. Spoke leader Pete Codella said a UWLP survey found that 47 percent of Utahns disagreed or were unsure if their companies offered family-friendly policies that met their needs, fewer Utah women than men agreed their organization provided opportunity for advancement and in 2023, 64 percent of Utah women participated in the workforce.
Among the goals are fostering a sense of belonging and opportunity at work and engaging employers in Utah to help elevate women’s presence and success in organizations through strategic actions and inclusive policies, fostering gender equality and diverse leadership, and cultivating family-friendly and thriving workplaces.
• Gender pay gap. Utah women, on average, earn 73 percent of what men do, often ranking at or near the bottom among states. That gap affects lifetime earnings, retirement, health care access and generational wealth, according to spoke leader Stacee Pedersen.
“The gender pay gap, it’s complex,” she said. “We have to admit it, it’s complex. But our spoke is bringing together organizations, business leaders, educators, policymakers and community-makers that are creating lasting change. … Closing this gap doesn’t just help women, it strengthens our families, our community and our state as a whole.”
• Workforce development. Spoke leader Heather Nemelka said Utah women need connections, confidence and competence to find successful employment that works for them and their families. Among the priorities are educating more Utah companies about the benefits of hiring returners and increasing pipelines and inclusivity for companies. It also wants to double the available workforce-related resources by 2030 and it is exploring a statewide mentorship program.
• STEM fields. “Utah leads in tech growth but lags in gender equity,” said spoke leader Stacy Firth. Only 24 percent of Utah’s STEM workers are women, a figure that stands at 27 percent nationally. Only 3.4 percent of employed Utah women are in STEM, compared with 10.5 percent of Utah men. And Utah girls have shown aptitude in STEM, she said.
“So this isn’t a problem of ability,” Firth said. “It’s a lack of visibility and opportunity, and our state is missing out as a result. … We need women in STEM to drive innovation that reflects us all, build equitable solutions and unlock the full creative problem-solving power of our communities.”
To reach its goals, the state needs to shift its outdated ideas about who belongs in STEM jobs, she said.
• Finance. Spoke leader Susan Speirs noted that finance issues are weaved into other spokes, and the goal is to help Utah women attain financial security and sustainability.
“Share what you know and mentor other women,” she urged the audience. “We’re all in this together. Women of any age thrive when empowered to achieve financial security and sustainability.”
“It’s time to move,” Madsen said after the spoke recaps and plan presentations. “We’re here because we have hope and we want to lean in and we want to do the work that needs to be done.”