Abuse and harassment climb the list of Utah women’s top concerns

Photo: Mark Sivewright

New USU brief tracks what's rising, what's falling and what won't budge

LOGAN, Utah — Utah women and girls still face the same underlying challenges they did two years ago, but the relative weight of those concerns is shifting, according to a new Utah State University brief tracking public perceptions across the state.

The report, released April 16 by the Utah Women & Leadership Project, is titled “Eleven Major Challenges Utah Girls and Women Face: A 2026 Update.” It draws on a 2025 statewide survey in which 5,212 people participated and 3,470 submitted written comments in response to the question, “What do you think are the greatest challenges for women and girls in Utah?” Because many respondents raised more than one issue, those answers produced 4,115 coded comments across 11 top categories.

Some concerns climbed sharply in the rankings. Experiences of abuse, assault, or harassment rose from ninth place in 2023 to sixth in 2025, cited in 11.2% of comments. The lack of women in leadership moved from 11th to 9th, and work-related inequities edged up from 5th to 4th. Others fell: balancing career and home dropped from fourth to fifth, and struggles with self-worth and self-confidence slid from sixth to eighth.

The top three categories held their positions but saw their shares of total comments decline. A lack of recognition or feeling undervalued — including sexism, bias, and discrimination — remained the most frequently cited challenge at 29% of coded comments, down from 42% in 2023. Gendered expectations, including economic insecurity, ranked second at 24.1%, down from 41.7%. Religious and cultural influence ranked third at 24%, down from 27.3% two years earlier.

Work-related inequities drew 22.9% of comments, nearly identical to the 23.3% recorded in 2023 — one of the few leading concerns that held steady in raw share even as it rose in rank. Respondents pointed to fewer advancement opportunities for women, limited parental leave, and a lack of workplace support and resources for parents.

Balancing career and home drew 15.2% of comments, down from 25.4% in 2023. Respondents described the strain of managing paid work or school alongside caregiving and domestic responsibilities, including pressure on mothers to “do it all.”

The remaining categories included lack of support or opportunities at 10.5%; self-worth and self-confidence at 10%; lack of women in leadership at 9%; medical and health resource concerns at 7.2%; and lack of education or training at 6.3%.

On leadership, respondents said women remain underrepresented in elected office, municipal government, corporate boards, and other positions of power in Utah — a gap they said limits both policy influence and girls’ sense of what is possible.

On health, respondents raised concerns about reproductive care, sex education, consent, mental health support, and access to broader women’s health information and services. That category fell from 13.2% in 2023 to 7.2% in the new report.

The brief was written by April Townsend, a research fellow with the Utah Women & Leadership Project, and Susan R. Madsen, a Utah State University Extension professor of leadership. The project said the survey is part of a three-year effort launched in fall 2023 to measure public awareness, understanding, and attitudes around the challenges and opportunities facing Utah girls and women.

Researchers said the brief is intended both to deepen public understanding of those challenges and to help Utahns mobilize resources and collective action to address them. A future brief will focus on perceived opportunities for girls and women in the state.