Patterns in major challenges faced by Utah women persist in new USU survey

Some of the reported challenges Utah girls and women face have eased in recent years. However, patterns of sexism, bias, and gendered expectations that lead to economic insecurity and other inequities prevail. 

The Utah Women & Leadership Project at Utah State University asked thousands of Utahns in 2025 their thoughts on the greatest challenges faced by women in the state. Almost 30% of them said they lacked recognition for their skills, talents and expertise, the most common theme across the responses. That’s down from the 42% registered in the same study conducted in 2023. 

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX

“The lack of awareness of systemic sexism and what that term really means,” one of the respondents wrote. “The gap between perception (we’ve achieved equal rights) and reality (women face thousands of different challenges from what men face in their day-to-day lives) seems to be going backward.”

While the study poses an open question, researchers identified similar themes in the answers from the 5,212 survey participants, aiming to document the challenges in order to provide more resources to address them, the study says. 

However, the group that made the study is facing its own challenges after it had its budget slashed for the second year in a row during the last day of the legislative session, when lawmakers reallocated $650,000 initially meant for the Utah Women & Leadership Project to Utah State’s University’s Utah Forest Restoration Institute. 

While the university is searching for donors to help fund the initiative, the move, founding director Susan Madsen told The Salt Lake Tribune, would eliminate most of the project’s staff and efforts.

The second most common category the analysis identified was the expectation placed on girls and women to “act and behave in a way that aligns with traditional female roles, particularly where women stay at home and raise children.” That’s a pattern that some respondents also linked to religion and state culture.

“I believe one of the biggest challenges for women and girls in Utah has to do with the predominant religion teaching and prioritizing women remaining in the home as caregivers and not seeking outside employment,” a commenter said. “This furthers the narrative that women don’t belong in the workplace and definitely should not be in leadership roles.”

Linked to those cultural beliefs were the expectations that women should make more career sacrifices to care for their families, some respondents said. Whether it is babysitting siblings early in life, or caring for parents during their old age, it is more common to see women stepping up in those caregiving roles, according to one of the comments.

For some women, staying home limited their earning potential and increased their risk of poverty, participants noted. That could lead to hardship leaving an unhealthy relationship, or women facing economic uncertainty during their senior years.

“Traditional gender roles apply responsibility to women for the raising of young children. Due to a lack of financially accessible childcare, women will take years off from the workforce to raise their children,” a participant said. “This poses a challenge to their long-term financial well-being as they receive fewer opportunities for professional growth.”

The study also expanded on other challenges, including some around work-related inequities, challenges to balance career and home responsibilities, as well as experiences of abuse, assault and harassment.

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE