Resources

Women in Elected Office

In Utah

One Utah woman currently serves in Congress (fourth in Utah history).
In 2017, 20 women (14 House, 6 Senate) served in Utah’s 104-member Legislature (19.2%).
- This is an increase from 16 women (15.4%) in 2016, and all 4 of the seats gained were in the House.
- Utah’s historic high was in 2002, when 24 women served in the Legislature (23.1%).
- In 2017, Utah ranks 38^th among state legislatures for percentage of women (up from 45^thin 2016).
6 women (2 House, 4 Senate) hold State Legislative Leadership positions in Utah.
No Utah women are currently elected to statewide office.
Utah women have been elected as mayors and as members of city and county councils and commissions and school boards throughout the state. See The Status of Women in Utah Politics: A 2017 Update at uvu.edu/uwlp for details.
Utah women register to vote—and vote—in higher numbers than men, but at lower rates than the national average. See The Well-Being of Women in Utah: An Overview at ywcautah.org for more information.

In U.S.

The Center for American Women in Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers (http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/) reports that 104 women hold seats in the 115^thS. Congress (19.4%).
21 women (16D, 5R) serve in the U.S. Senate. 83 women (62D, 21R) serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 2017, 74 women hold statewide elective offices across the country (23.7%).
The number of female governors serving dropped from six in 2016 (3D, 3R) to five in 2017 (2D, 3R). 13 women serve as Lt. Governors.
In 2017, 1,842 or 24.9%, of state legislators in the United States are women. CAWP reports that since 1971, the number of women serving in state legislatures has more than quintupled.
Statistics show that women running for office win elections at the same rate as men, but nationwide fewer women choose to take the initial step to run for office.
Women vote in higher numbers than men and have done so in every presidential election since 1964.

Women in Utah Election History

Utah territory gave women right to vote in 1870; renounced when Utah became a state in 1896; Utah wrote women’s suffrage into its state constitution, 24 years before federal right to vote in 1920
Martha Hughes Cannon (D), first state senator in the U.S. (1897-1901)
Reva Beck Bosone (D), first Utah woman elected to U. S. House of Representatives (1949-53)
Karen Shepherd (D), second Utah woman elected to U. S. House of Representatives (1993-95)
Jan Graham (D), first female Utah Attorney General (1993-2001)
Enid Greene Mickelson (R), third Utah woman elected to U. S. House of Representatives (1995-97)
Olene S. Walker (R), first female Lieutenant Governor in Utah (1993-2003), then first female Governor (2003-05)
Deedee Corradini, first (and only) woman to serve as Mayor of Salt Lake City (1992-2000)
Becky Lockhart (R), first woman to serve as Speaker of the Utah House of Representatives (2010-14)
Jennifer Seelig (D), first woman to serve as Minority Leader in the Utah House (2013-14)
Mia Love (R), fourth Utah woman elected to U.S. House of Representatives (2015 – )