Utah is the worst state for women. Less than 31% of management positions were held by women in Utah, the second lowest rate nationwide. Women were also less likely than women in the vast majority of states to hold leadership roles in government. Of the 75 seats in the state’s House of Representatives, just six were filled by women last year. And there were just five female state-level senators. In all, women made up just 16.3% of state legislators, less than in all but five other states. Perhaps the lack of women in traditionally high-paying management and high-level government occupations has exacerbated the gender pay gap. While a typical man in Utah earned more than $50,000 last year, most women made 70% — or $35,252 — of that figure, nearly the largest pay discrepancy in the country.”
Unfortunately, we have a long way to go as a nation, and as long as we continue to vote right-wingers into office, we will not see any improvements.
h/t: 24/7 WallSt

Other factors: HR policies here are no more family-friendly than anywhere else (maybe less so), good daycare is much harder to find (and is a higher percentage of the woman's smaller paycheck), and women are much more likely to go into lower-paying career fields traditionally dominated by women (K-12 teaching, nursing, secretarial/office work, dental hygiene, and cosmetology, for example). Women here are also far less likely to earn bachelor's degrees (and even less likely than that to earn post-grad degrees). They are much more likely to drop out of college than men (often because they have babies).

The Mormon cultural and religious landscape tells women that their only real success happens at home, and that nothing else they ever do will matter as much as having babies and staying at home to raise them. Young girls are indoctrinated from birth that a college degree and career field are basically just an insurance policy in case their husbands die or become disabled, so they make life choices based on that scenario. The other idea is that they can stay home for 15-20 years and then start a career after the kids are older.

As a college instructor, I see a lot of women rushing to get married their freshman year and start having babies ASAP. They drop out, but may end up back in college in their thirties or forties, when they realize they have little marketable skills and experience and can't earn a living. Often they come back as single parents or victims of economic hardship. Even if they graduate, they'll enter the workforce at entry level salaries/wages, competing against people ten or twenty years younger -- but it's better than working at Wal-Mart or McDonald's until retirement.

I totally agree~

This is exactly why alimony and child support are "slanted" toward women, as MRAs claim. In situations where a man's earning potential remains the same or increases post-divorce and a woman's earning potential drops sharply post divorce, the courts are going to make him give her money until the playing field is a bit leveled. In situations where the wife/mom completed her education and built a career in addition to her career of Mommy, typically, the courts don't order the husbands to provide as much support. In Utah, you see the former situation more frequently than the latter, simply because of dominating mormon gender-role culture, so there's a perception among mormon-corridor exmos that the system is rigged in favor of women. In many other nonmormon-dominated places where women are culturally and socially afforded the same opportunities, I think there's less disparity. Lesson to be learned here is: The church isn't doing anyone any favors by discouraging women from getting educations and having careers outside the home. That hurts everyone in the long run. One way or the other, everybody pays a steep price for it.

This is not necessarily true. In Utah, child support tables are rarely adjusted (only twice since the 1980s); from my own experience and that of dozens of other divorced women I know, it certainly does NOT seem that courts are "slanted" towards single mothers. If anything, the opposite seems true; they want to discourage women from getting divorces (especially if there are children involved) and punish those who do.
You are absolutely right, though: the more women do to prepare for a financially sound future, the less steep of a price they'll have to pay if divorce happens.

Do you or anyone have the graduation rates for female that attend BYU?

Agreed. What's worse, is that a lot of the women who do stay at home, try and find reasons to validate themselves. A lot of them look down on working moms. I had a lady once say to me that she didn't understand how I could be away from my son so much. She loves her kids more than that. It made me realize-- THAT'S why I go to work. I hate my offspring.

I heard the same type of guilt-tripping from Mormon stay-at-home moms. After the divorce, I had no choice -- I had to work. I loved my kids enough to provide food, shelter, clothing, transportation, school supplies, medical care, college application fees...

My mom worked during our children ...not the whole time but i dont think she needed to. Even part time work helps make them happier than if the are only stay at home moms.
"Despite the juggling act required to hold down a job and care for children, moms who work report they’re healthier and happier than moms who stay at home when their kids are babies and preschoolers.

What’s more, women who worked part-time fared the best, trumping the stay-at-home crowd and, in some cases, full-timers, on measures of health and stress, according to a study that appears in December’s Journal of Family Psychology."


http://healthland.time.com/2011/12/13/working-moms-particularly-part-timers-are-happier-and-healthier-than-at-home-moms/

You must hate your offspring an awful lot to sell your time to provide food, clothing, and necessities for them...
Don't understand why people rag on working moms so much. Yeah, it may not be the best situation, but neither is being stuck in a house with a bunch of children 24/7! Lol.

I had someone tell me " you know subeam I love my child and that's why I choose to stay home you on the other side you are money oriented and that's why you went back to work".

I would tell her that at least my daughter doesn't have to spend 24/7 with a b--ch like hers does. And then I would smile.

Yeah, it has nothing to do with economic uncertainty, paying off debt and saving for college.

Thank you summer and tmac you guys made me laugh very hard :)

More Mormon men support women for the priesthood than women.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/10/08/big-majority-of-mormons-oppose-women-in-priesthood-including-women/

If we accept those numbers as an indication of what Mormons think of woman's role in society outside TSCC, then the vast majority of Mormons, Mormon women in particular, would approve of the state of women in Utah.

This could mean that a majority, or near majority, of women in Utah want and approve of women not being considered equal in terms of employment.

They've been trained to think that way, MJ. What they need are some groundbreaking thinkers and role models. Back in the early 70s I was reading the works of Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem. Mormon women need similar writers and thinkers -- people who can move them out of their comfort zones.

I am simply pointing out the depth of the issue, not condemning the women.

Utah will not change until Women change their ways, apparently men are further along, more supporting equality for women. Are you saying that these men should force their views on women, or are you trying to say that *I* should be forcing my vies about women's equality on women?

Neither. I'm just saying that I'm reminded of the same situation that was happening in the early 70s as attitudes began to change, and women began training for careers. There needs to be more role models for change to happen.

Yes, as I said, the change came when WOMEN changed and stopped letting men force their views on women.

Thanks for validating everything I said.

According to the number, men are further ahead on this issue than women. That needs to change for any change in the status of women can change. If it does not change and women want the sub-status, we will be forcing something on women that the majority of women do not want.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/2014 10:49AM by MJ.

Right, the change has to initiate with women. That is why I think that there needs to be some working Mormon moms who are both vocal and persuasive.