Addison Stoddard: Welcome to another USU Extension Education highlight. I'm Addison Stoddard, and joining me today is Kolene Anderson, Associate Director for the Utah Women and Leadership Project. Thanks so much for being here, Kolene.
Kolene Anderson: Thank you so much for inviting me.
Addison Stoddard: The Utah State University Utah Women and Leadership Project published research in 2020 with the goal of the project being to document a baseline number of women in leadership roles in government. A recent 2024 report provided an update on the 2020 research. Kolene, would you be able to tell me a little bit about the findings from this most recent report?
Kolene Anderson: Yeah, it's really interesting. And first of all, I want to highlight, this report talks about leadership that goes beyond elected officials. This particular report is talking about counties across the state of Utah, and counties have a really important influence in infrastructure, in all kinds of things that impact Utah families. So that's kind of a little bit of of why this information matters. Interestingly, we have had a little, a slight, increase in executive leaderships within positions of county government. We've had a slight increase.; they've gone up 45.27%. Whereas in 2020, 42.5% of those positions were held by women.
Addison Stoddard: Very cool. It's good to see that there's definitely a little bit of increase and improvement. I also saw in the report that they offered some suggestions or recommendations for improving women's leadership roles in counties. Would you be able to tell us a little bit about some of those recommendations and why they're there?
Kolene Anderson: Yeah, the biggest and probably most important is establishing a tone from the top. So the idea there is that as we are working collectively to support and advance women, and by the way, that has a tremendous impact on Utah families. There's not a token sort of mentality or will do this just because, right? It really is setting that tone from the top, being very inclusive and interested in recommendations that women have, and concerns that they elevate and raise for conversation. So that's a big part of it. Making that visible commitment as well. So as you are setting the tone from the top within leadership, then also making it very apparent that that is your intention, that you really do want to make sure that Utah is a place that represents the needs and concerns of women. And the leadership component of that is is definitely a part of what we're trying to address and resolve. And then identifying in meetings or in organizations where you know someone is taking the lead, where are gaps in representation? Where do you not have enough or any women at the table to share their perspectives, their concerns. So representation is a key part of that too.
Addison Stoddard: That's so great. I think that's a great concept of, you know, seeing where women can fit in, and seeing where there's maybe those holes. Thank you so much for joining me today. I really appreciate your comments.
Kolene Anderson: You are so welcome. Thanks for having me.
