In the summer of 2024, I enjoyed meeting with leaders and residents in Morgan County to brainstorm how to better strengthen the impact of girls and women in your area. My Utah Women & Leadership Project colleague, Amy Anderson, and I collected ideas and strategies from 20 residents that individuals, groups, and organizations can use to address the complex and unique issues that women and girls in Morgan County face.

During our conversation, five primary areas of concern emerged: home and family, education, health and wellbeing, business and economics, and culture and community engagement. Attendees suggested specific ideas within each of these areas, and I thought I would share some of them here (you can read more details in our published report).

Home & Family

In Morgan County, parents are recognized as the most powerful influences on the lives of their daughters. Parents in Morgan County can help their daughters thrive by ensuring their daughters and sons have equal opportunities, model healthy relationships and teach children and youth how to establish them, put an end to gender stereotyping of professions and household chores, create an environment where being uncomfortable is okay when discussing hard topics with teens, communicate with children using appropriate terminology when referring to their bodies and know what steps and interventions to take if a child is abused or assaulted, recognize and empower women with the “Power of AND” — they can have a variety of roles in life without having to choose between being a mother, spouse, student, volunteer, business leader, or politician, women can be amazing wives and mothers AND can impact the community for good, and build confidence and self-esteem in girls by helping them recognize their aptitudes, set goals, and make good choices.

Education

Leaders in Morgan County emphasized the essential role schools play in developing leadership, confidence, and competence in girls and young women, they recognize the essential role graduating from college plays in a woman’s life. To help girls and women thrive in education, community leaders can address the discrepancy at early ages between boys and girls enrolling in and excelling at STEM, empower girls by providing leadership training and opportunities at school, bring in local speakers to discuss topics such as self-defense and sexual assault, develop robust curriculum regarding healthy relationships for both boys and girls — include prevention lessons on sexual abuse and trafficking, make a comprehensive list of mentors who are local, regional, or otherwise available to support students in their fields of interest, partner with libraries, churches, and other organizations to create activities geared toward introducing students to careers in STEM, promote the diversity of career options and encourage young women to consider traditionally male-dominated fields, and expose them to the variety of different careers available to them, including careers in technology and trades.

Health & Wellbeing

Concern over the physical wellbeing of girls and women in Morgan County emerged as a primary theme. Community members and leaders can advocate for youth to create code words with a trusted adult so they have an easy and safe way out of uncomfortable or dangerous situations, inform and educate the community about consent, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and assault, invest in gathering data about sexual abuse and trafficking and raise awareness and fund prevention efforts, place signage in bathrooms with information on hotlines, helplines, and other emergency resources, make sure girls and women know where and how to turn for help with sexual assault and domestic violence for themselves and others, and combat suicidal ideation by sharing information and resources from mental health experts with people in all sectors of society.

Business & Economics

Morgan County women struggle with limited opportunities for internal advancement and leadership, as well as with conscious and unconscious bias. Industry leaders can increase access to high-quality, affordable, and available childcare, invite employers generally to provide childcare as a benefit similar to insurance benefits, potentially subsidizing childcare costs, develop a “Women in Business” career day in conjunction with the high school and involve elected officials, promote a mindset change with no restrictions on the career options available to young women and women, and eliminate gender-based assumptions about women’s professional capabilities.

Culture & Community Engagement

Leaders in Morgan County acknowledged how culture heavily influences the community, and are concerned about the limitations and decreased value the culture has placed on women and girls. The community can expand funding for sports and events for girls, explore programs such as “Girls on the Run” and events focused on ways to empower young girls and provide information on hard topics such as sexual abuse, promote the importance of women voting and help women become educated voters, seek out, encourage, mentor, and support women willing and able to run for political office, spotlight women leaders and male allies in the community, create a County Youth Commission to empower youth to affect change, and normalize and destigmatize feminism — change the perception that it is radical or extreme, focus on the promotion of and advocacy for women’s rights, recognizing the basic equality of all people.

Overall, I believe there is so much potential in Morgan County for positive change that can ensure that more girls, women, and their families — including boys and men — can better thrive.

In 2023, my team and I launched “A Bolder Way Forward for Utah,” a statewide movement with coalitions in each county to help make sure this happens. You can learn more about the Morgan County Coalition here or reach out to amy.z.anderson@usu.edu to learn more about how you can get involved.

The full report is available here. Thank you to the USU Morgan County Extension and to the many collaborators and partners in Morgan County who supported the community conversation.

Susan R. Madsen is the Karen Haight Huntsman Endowed Professor of Leadership in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University and the founding director of the Utah Women & Leadership Project.