Utah women lead: a new initiative aims to elevate women's leadership in the state.

• Author: Gochnour, Natalie
• Position: Economic Insight

I attended the launch last month of the Women's Leadership Institute, a group of men and women in Utah committed to elevating the stature of women's leadership in our state. Pat Jones, who serves as CEO of the institute, said it best: "Our state will fall behind if we don't use the full capacity of women."

Stepping Up

In what will be remembered by those in attendance as a moving event, executive vice president of Zions Bank Lori Chillingworth spoke with candor about how Utah's record of female leadership lags behind other states. She said women bring needed perspective to business leadership roles and improve the bottom line. She referenced the massive cultural shift occurring toward more women in leadership roles and encouraged Utah to get on board. And that's exactly what people did.

In a strong showing of support, more than two dozen Utah companies stood up to take what is called the ElevateHER Challenge. The challenge includes specific areas where businesses and organizations can benefit from more women in leadership roles. Areas of focus include increasing the percentage of women in senior leadership positions, increasing the retention rate of women, increasing the number of women on boards and commissions, recruiting women to run for public office, and monitoring pay by gender and closing identified gaps.

An impressive list of companies took the challenge: American Express, Buckner Companies, CHG Healthcare Services, Goldman Sachs, Intermountain Healthcare, Larry H. Miller Group of Companies, Questar, Union Pacific Railroad, Wells Fargo and Zions Bank, to name just a few. Many of Utah's colleges and universities jumped on board, as well as the state of Utah.

It was also meaningful to see The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as many of its business interests, take the challenge. This slate of companies includes Beneficial Life, Bonneville Communications, Deseret Book, Deseret Digital Media, Deseret News Publishing and Temple Square Hospitality. I think it's safe to say the LDS Church recognizes the value of women's leadership and is prepared to advance women in leadership roles. I'm proud they took this step.

Paying Tribute

My favorite part of the launch was the genuine and heartfelt remarks by Gov. Gary Herbert. In what I think was one of the best speeches of his administration, he said, "We can do better. We can raise the bar." Then he spoke with affection about the women in his administration who have made or are...