Sexism in Utah’s Politics
I’ve been thinking for a long about the issue of sexism in Utah politics. Jenny Wilson rightly pointed out that she was asked questions that none of her male counterparts were asked during the Mayor’s race. At the same time, Gayle Ruzicka is incredibly influential in Utah politics - sure, she’s nasty and bigoted and provides our male legislators with “family friendly” rhetorical cover for their various bigotries but she still possesses tremendous influence. It’s influence she’s worked god damned hard to get - and she protects it with a consistency and passion that is truly admirable and a bit scary. Ruzicka seems to know she’s only taken seriously because she is able to influence people and her group - which has a history of some fairly amoral tactics - maintains its influence through lots of damned hard work. Does her influence demonstrate that there is no sexism in Utah politics or does the exception prove the rule?
Talk to any group of women in Utah and you will hear stories of the most blatant sexism imaginable - as well as some of the most subtle sexism. It may sound minor, but look at the four statues in the Utah state capitol. I was there for my day at the leg and I was brought up short when I stepped into the rotunda. There is industry and science - and the statues are male. The others - art and immigration - are female. It may sound minor but as an expression of values it speaks loud and clear - that women are responsible for children and pretty things and the men will do the “real” work.
Any woman in Utah, especially an educated and intelligent one, can tell you that sexism is alive, well, and harmful in Utah. I think Salt Lakers are less sexist than many other Utahns. If nothing else, they supported DeeDee Corradini as their mayor for two full terms. The Tribuner an article, Women are losing ground, elected positions in Utah, that explored the possible reasons why fewer women are being elected in Utah.
The article points out that Salt Lake City, which easily elected the very progressive Ralph Becker, nevertheless has only one woman on its seven member city council. The author contacted Jenny Wilson who is quoted:
Jenny Wilson, the lone woman on the Salt Lake County Council, argues women still combat prejudice in Utah elections, particularly when they run for high-level, executive-type positions. She doesn’t think her gender cost her the Salt Lake City mayoral race this year, but she does think it made her campaign more challenging.Â
“There were questions asked of me that weren’t asked about the men in the race - questions about my hair and whether my kids would . . . at some point be harmed” if their mother worked a demanding, full-time job, Wilson says.
“Still, in the state of Utah - and even in progressive Salt Lake City - people look twice when they see a woman.”
Wilson is absolutely correct. It’s an old saw but there are a lot of women who have worked twice as hard as any man to get half the credit.
With Wilson, who is smart and capable and well spoken, however, the sexism she encountered seems to me to have been only one aspect in her electoral defeat but it deformed how she ran her campaign. Consider he response to the Editorical by Rocky Anderson. She and her campaign completely screwed up their response to Rocky’s editorial - her response made her look weak and insecure rather than capable and intelligent. By responding to what she perceived as an attack, Wilson probably hurt herself; I think most voters didn’t take Anderson’s comments all that seriously and what they saw in Wilson’s response was an attempt to get media attention. Wilson - an otherwise smart candidate - accustomed to both overt and covert sexism, overreacted. Without the groundwork laid by her previous experiences, she would have responded to Anderson’s op-ed very differently - and very like would have blown it and its author out of the water. She missed the chance because she was accustomed to dealing with sexism.
Any woman running for office, especially in Utah - is going to face a playing field tilted against her. Jenny Wilson certainly faced those challenges in the past - and won a County Council seat. Depictions of her in the paper did often show her in a dimunitive and dismissive way. I once heard a comment that Jenny Wilson finally managed to produce a piece of campaign lit that didn’t mention her father - and people attacked her for seeming to campaign entirely as her father’s daughter. You can’t run as someone’s daughter then complain when people criticize you for doing so. Addressing the sexism in the media treatment of Jenny Wilson versus the other candidates needs to happen. Not every criticism of Jenny was based in sexism. Which brings me to:
Was Rocky’s op-ed on September 9 “deliberately sexist”? No. But, in an environment where one candidate’s gender had consistently been used against her, to question her credentials, it was going to be read that. Rocky Anderson probably didn’t think about that - part of not being a woman is simple - we men don’t think about those things.
Sure, there are successful women in Utah politics but even a day at the Hill demostrates that those women are not treated with the same respect given their male colleagues. Even conservative women seem to be treated as dramatic exceptions to the way women are supposed to be and roles they are supposed to inhabit. They are seen broadly as the exceptions to expected female decorum and behavior. I believe much of this is reinforced in Salt Lake’s religious community - which tends towards the male dominated. (Not just the Mormon church.) Yes, there are exceptions such Carolyn Tanner-Irish, Linda Hilton, Erin Gilmore, Tracee Rosen, but these female leaders often co
