New research spotlights the status of women and girls in Utah, in five areas of focus.

At Utah State University, Susan Madsen, founding director of the Utah Women and Leadership Project, said that while Utah has high levels of female participation in volunteerism and voting, more can be done to increase the number of women in elected positions of power. None of Utah's congressional delegation is female, compared with almost 27% nationally.

Madsen said things won't improve unless bold and meaningful strides are made to achieve some changes.

"Generally speaking, it's been a real positive place to be in Utah for many reasons," she said, "yet it really is a challenging place for many - maybe not all, but for many women - because of the underlying sexism, because of the cultural issues that we've had."

Madsen said many of the challenges impede women from achieving professional goals, but others affect their personal lives.

The summary says women in Utah experience higher rates of sexual abuse and domestic violence than nationwide, and calls for increased access to crisis services and more support for single mothers. It makes specific recommendations in five categories, and also calls on men to become more engaged.

Madsen said the State of Utah has the potential to change and improve, and added that in 2024, more and more people are ready for that change - including men. But the research found Utah men are generally less aware of gender bias than their global counterparts.

Madsen said there is a need for lots of learning, especially among state policymakers.

"There is this surface level of support, which is great," she said. "I mean, we want that, right? But those other layers of support and understanding, and compassion - and then getting to empathy and passion to be involved, even if it's not our own experiences - are going to be really important as we move forward in the state of Utah."

She said one way to get involved is by joining her organization's initiative, called 'A Bolder Way Forward.' She added that while the needle has been moved slightly in recent years, on the state's current trajectory, it could take from two to four decades for notable progress for women and girls.


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Sunday is Mother's Day, and what moms may need most is a day off.

Research shows that inequities persist in the amount of time moms and dads spend on child care. In 2023, American mothers spent on average 167% more time on primary caregiving than fathers. And the Institute for Women's Policy Research says that costs a mom nearly $17,000 per year - and $450 billion nationwide - in "foregone" income.

Kate Bahn, the institute's chief economist and senior vice president for research, said the trend continues with "secondary child care," or supervising children while multitasking - mothers spend 133% more time doing so than fathers.

"That is not time you can go into an office. That is not time where you can be out of the house," she said. "And so, that is time where you also still can't work for earnings. Some mothers are really constrained by their disproportionate caregiving responsibility."

Data show that in Montana, mothers make 59% of what fathers make per year - a difference of nearly $25,000. The inequities are worse among Native American moms in the state, whose pay is about half the earnings of white fathers.

Bahn added that rural families may face extra barriers.

"If we're thinking about all the constraints that shape how women decide to engage in the labor market," she said, "it can be things like driving distance to a job, access to child-care services for your children."

A bill to help support child-care workers in Montana passed both chambers of the state Legislature and could get to the governor's desk. It would expand eligibility for the "Best Beginnings Child Care Scholarship Program" to include child care workers - who are some of the state's lowest-paid workers.


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Wildland firefighting is a tough job and the industry has long struggled with worker retention. Training boot camps have helped bring new firefighters, especially women, into the fold in recent years, but federal cuts could threaten progress.

About 84% of federal wildland firefighters are men, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Boot camps targeting women have been popular. Montana saw its first just last year.

Riva Duncan, vice president of the group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, worked in fire for more than three decades and said the boot camps offered a "safe environment" to raise concerns.

"Beyond the actual required training, just having discussions about, 'Well, how do you address hygiene? What do I do if I feel like I'm being treated unfairly?' And those kinds of questions that don't get covered in a classroom setting," Duncan explained.

Since the boot camps are designed to increase workforce diversity, future programs have been cut under the Trump administration's DEI rollbacks. Following the firing and then rehiring of 6,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture employees since February, including some with firefighting duties, the Interior Department announced permanent pay raises for wildland firefighters in the new federal appropriations budget.

The U.S. Forest Service has seen a 45% attrition rate of wildland firefights over the last three years. Duncan argued the DEI cuts will not help.

"We need people who want to do this work. We need the kind of people that value working on the public lands and serving the American taxpayers," Duncan emphasized. "This has detrimental effects to the overall recruitment and retention strategy to try and get firefighters into these jobs."

Fourteen different scheduled women's boot camps have been canceled. According to the USDA, about 65,000 wildfires burned nearly 9 million acres across the U.S. in 2024.


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March is Women's History Month and an Arkansas native has made history by being honored with a $1 coin from the U.S. Mint.

The late Raye Montague was an engineer with the U.S. Navy and created the first computer-generated rough draft of a U.S. naval ship in 1971. Because of her work, ships could be designed in 18 hours instead of two years.

David Montague, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Raye's son, said his family worked closely with the mint to create the coin's design.

"It was her with her hand over her heart, which is patriotic, and then looking over the ship that she designed, the Oliver Hazard Perry," Montague explained. "That struck me immediately. And then the background, underneath the ship is the sea, and then that is actually a computer grid."

He recalled when he was a child, he collected coins with his mother, so it is fitting she would receive the honor. She died in 2018.

Last year, the federal building where she worked, in Bethesda, Maryland, was renamed the Raye Montague Center for Maritime Technology. Her son pointed out although his mother faced obstacles, she created time to help others.

"She saw it as the natural course of her professional opportunities," Montague observed. "If she was able to gain opportunities to do things and grow as a human being, she wanted to make sure that she opened doors for other people and was trying to make the world a better place."

The coin was released earlier this year and Montague noted it is already being used to continue his mother's legacy. The currency was shared with kids in an Arkansas youth group.

"They used the coin to say you all are Arkansas youth and this person was an Arkansas youth, and look, they're on a dollar coin," Montague added. "If she can do great things, as long as you work hard and you push for opportunities, then you have options as well."


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