Morgan Lyon Cotti and Allie Pierce: Engagement, Mentoring & Women in Politics

Morgan Lyon Cotti and Allie Pierce join us for a powerful conversation about women's political empowerment through Utah Women Run. Inspired by her mother's legislative career, Morgan shares her lifelong commitment to increasing female representation in politics. Allie, who shifted her focus from vocal performance to gender studies, talks about how her upbringing in a politically engaged family fueled her passion for advocacy. Together, they reveal the transformative journey of Utah Women Run and its mission to break down barriers for women aspiring to political leadership.

We dive into the pivotal role of mentorship and community in fostering political engagement among women. Listen as we recount the success of the Day on the Hill event, where participants gained insights into the legislative process and formed valuable connections with lawmakers and lobbyists. This episode underscores the importance of equipping women with the skills and confidence needed to thrive in political environments. Our hosts introduce a new mentorship program designed to inspire and guide women towards impactful political careers, blending practical advice with motivational support.

As we explore the historical and present dynamics of women in political office, the conversation highlights the importance of bipartisan support and collaboration. Celebrate the achievements of trailblazing women recognized by the Martha Hughes Cannon Award and discover the significance of initiatives like the Dignity Index in promoting civility in political discourse. We call on our listeners to support and uplift the women around them, emphasizing the need for resources and encouragement to enhance female representation across the political spectrum.

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Transcript

Women Empowerment in Politics and Leadership

Speaker 1 0:05

Welcome to Elevate a Women's Leadership Institute podcast , where we showcase stories , celebrate successes and shift culture . Welcome to another episode of Elevate a Women's Leadership Institute podcast . Today we are here with the lovely ladies of Utah Women Run . We have Morgan Lyon-Cotty , who is the Associate Director of the Hinckley Institute , where she also manages Utah Women Run . We have Morgan Lyon-Cotty , who is the Associate Director of the Hinckley Institute , where she also manages Utah Women Run . And we have Allie Pierce , who is a graduate at the University of Utah in Gender Studies and is now the Utah Women Run Fellow . Welcome , ladies . I'm so excited for our conversation today . I'm so excited to be on . Yeah , so I would love you to tell us a little bit more about yourself , including a personal fact , so we can kind of see you as both an expert in your field and something personal about you to humanize you , sure .

Speaker 2 0:54

So maybe a fun little personal fact about me is that I have been campaigning for women since I was six years old . Oh , my mom was in the state legislature and it was just a family activity to campaign for her , and we walked the hills of our neighborhood and knocked doors , and even now , almost 40 years later , I probably could say what I had memorized and that's often what I point to of why I am so interested in this issue , in politics , in women governing though my siblings are all just as passionate , but they were smart enough to perhaps find careers in other fields , so it wasn't completely all encompassing . So I have been at the Hinckley Institute now for almost 11 years and I've been on the board of what was Real Women Run , now Utah Women Run , almost that entire time , and a few years ago Real Women Run came to the Hinckley from the YWCA and we have renamed it Utah Women Run , and it's been just amazing to be a bigger part of it in that way .

Speaker 1 2:00

Thank you , and .

Speaker 3 2:01

Allie , yes , I got involved with Utah Women Run in my , I think , my junior senior year of college and it started as a summer internship through the Hinckley Institute and it was kind of a great opportunity to merge my love for politics and my passion for gender studies , because I grew up in a really politically involved house . My mom would always volunteer at the polls , you know , do all these things , and so that was really important growing up , which I'm really grateful for . And then , through doing my gender studies major , I kind of it's not super an obvious career path after that , and so I kind of was like you know , I'm just going to do things that feel right to me , and that was something that my uncle had recommended is doing something through the Hinkley Institute , and so I was like OK , sure , and then it was Utah Women Run .

Speaker 3 2:46

The internship was offered later on , like it wasn't in the original list of different things you can do , and so they sent it out to people and was like if anyone's interested in this , let me know . And I was like that sounds perfect . So I ended up doing that and it has been really awesome so far . They've kept me and I'm really grateful for that and I found a way to hang on to it , which is awesome . Something personal about me is that I started college as a music major actually , so I did vocal performance for my first two years and then ended up transitioning and switched my major and my minor , which has been great , but now I get to sing in the choir and do lots of fun things outside of that .

Speaker 1 3:24

That's amazing . Was it your time in vocal performance that made you want to do gender studies ?

Speaker 3 3:34

So when I started as a vocal performance major , I wanted to do choral music , ed . But you have to audition for the program to get into the school , obviously . And when I auditioned they gave me a scholarship to do vocal performance and I was like that's so awesome .

Speaker 1 3:49

And then , about three weeks into my freshman year , I got diagnosed with vocal nodes and ulcers on my voice box .

Speaker 3 3:51

so , um , I kind of took some time to be on vocal rest , not be on vocal rest , be back on vocal rest , and it was like a year and a half of just some really hard stuff in that in that regard . And so I did my third semester of doing music . I decided to switch and focus on my minor classes , which was gender studies at the time , and I just found I really enjoyed them and academically I was doing a lot better than I did when I was in music . So I ended up deciding that for both my mental and my vocal health , it was probably the best decision for me to switch those things .

Speaker 1 4:20

So yeah , so the line from Pitch Perfect comes to my real yeah . I have no everyone .

Speaker 3 4:26

I every time I tell someone that they're like oh , I didn't realize that was a real thing and I said that's what happened to me , so yeah thank you for sharing that .

Speaker 1 4:33

You are such an asset to Utah . Women Run . From the time that I've experienced you Like I really appreciate that you're there and I think most seniors who are graduating from college well , many of them and sometimes what we hear from women in our political development series is I don't want to do this with my kids , like the time is not right for me . I don't want to sacrifice that , which is absolutely legitimate , but from a perspective of a daughter of someone who ran , I would love to kind of hear your perspective on that , just so moms out there can see that maybe that it could have been pretty gnarly right . Like I'm sure your mom has gone a lot , but I'd love to explore that with you for just a minute .

Speaker 2 5:32

Yeah Well from my mom's perspective . So if you know she had , she went to college , got her , got her master's , got her teaching degree and was trying to do the thing in the 1970s where can you actually work and have small children ? And then that 1970s I mean , we're this country still trying to figure out parental leave like and then it was not an easy thing to do . So she had taken some time off from work and was at home and got to the point where she wanted to go back . And it is the story that is sort of funny that we tell is she had applied for a job with Davis School District and found out like 100 people were applying . It was like there's no way . So she decided I'm going to run for office . She'd been involved in the PTA , her father had also but very political family .

Speaker 2 6:21

Like I'm also the granddaughter of a candidate . My grandfather had been in the state legislature in the 70s early , I think , 70s and so that was a known path for her .

Speaker 2 6:34

And then it turned out she got the job and she'd already filed to run for office , so she was trying to figure out these things . It was a crazy time and there just it just wasn't even a question of do we involve the kids , Do we make this a family thing ? Because her father had made it a family thing . I can talk with my aunts and uncles and sometimes laugh , sometimes commiserate about . We live in Southern Davis County and so if you're campaigning you're hiking up a mountain to get to every house . But you know I have all these happy , fun memories of it and my siblings and walking around . But I had actually forgotten a lot of those until with at a Utah Women Run event , at a training , we had a panel of family members of candidates and it was me , it was Becky Edwards's husband when she was still in the legislature and it was Jenny Wilson before she ran for senator mayor . Oh , really , Talking about helping with her father Ted Wilson's campaigns when he was city mayor when he ran for US Senate .

Speaker 2 7:36

This was probably eight years ago that we were on this panel and it just filled me with nostalgia and gratitude . It was amazing to listen to now Mayor Wilson talk about how proud she was of her dad and how she loved being part of it , and loved even listening to the conversations , and to hear about Becky Edwards's husband talk about how proud his daughters were of their mom .

Speaker 2 8:00

how he loved talking about how amazing his wife was when he knocked doors , and it then has spurred so many other conversations . Sophia DeCaro , who was in the state legislature and who is now the director of the governor's office of planning and budget . She did the same thing when she ran for office a few years ago . You can fully , you know , incorporate your kids , even if they're in strollers , even if they're pulling the little red wagon with the pamphlets , and then it feels , I mean , you're showing constituents who you are , you're showing them your family , you're showing them your priorities , and it is this fun way to make it work in a very busy stage of life .

Speaker 1 8:42

That is so beautiful . Thank you for sharing that . Of course , a mentor once taught me find a passion , that you can bring your family along , and that speaks to what you're saying . Right , just bring them along , give them the opportunity . And also how your mom was like I could take a job or I could run , because she'd already had that example .

Speaker 2 9:02

Yes .

Speaker 1 9:03

Yeah , that it's , a viable option .

Speaker 2 9:04

Yeah Well , and I teach a campaign management course at the University of Utah and my dad actually the other day was like , hey , do you need me to come as a guest speaker ? He's like what do you want to talk about , dad ? And he was like you know , maybe driving what we called the Lion Mobile . We had this old 77 Chevy truck and my dad rigged up wood paneling above the truck bed and we just stapled vote lion signs for my mother all over , and so that was just a driving advertisement around the district .

Speaker 1 9:37

You were ahead of his time .

Speaker 2 9:38

He was I mean yeah , now we have the driving TV billboards and that's what he had rigged up . And I mean , even we're now 30 years , 40 years past some of these campaigns , and it's fun that it just still is this cool thing that our family did together . Yeah , I love that and it also makes it so that you know , I know some of the pieces of legislation my mother sponsored . No-transcript , that's so sweet .

Speaker 1 10:12

I love that . That's inspiring . I feel like I just want to bask in that story for a minute . And Allie . What brought you into politics ? You said you grew up in a political family . Who ?

Speaker 3 10:23

was always involved Share a little bit about that . So , yes , I was really lucky to have parents that really prioritized talking about politics , talking about issues that they found important . You know , like I said , my mom would always volunteer at the polls for general elections . So I'm actually this week , I'm going to the training to be a poll worker , next week or a couple of weeks , so I'm really excited about that and so we always prioritize those conversations and it was kind of funny going to school and being with kids who didn't prioritize those conversations

Empowering Women in Politics

Speaker 3 10:50

. And you know , it was a unique skill that I gained through that experience of being able to talk about things that were maybe beyond my years or be able to go to school .

Speaker 3 10:59

And you know , I remember my first AP class in like ninth grade and doing human geography or whatever it was , and feeling like I can actually take part and offer something really important in a conversation like this , and that's because my parents were able to give me that and give me those discussion skills . This , and that's because my parents were able to give me that and give me those discussion skills .

Speaker 1 11:20

And then , since then I was obviously I graduated high school in 2020 .

Speaker 3 11:22

So it was politically a very interesting time and that really allowed me to get kind of involved in that sense . And you know , I've always had a passion for social justice and so looking around at things like that things happening in 2020 and beyond that allowed me to kind of see the political side of things . And then as I came and transferred to the ? U , you know I often opened up a lot of opportunities . Being in Salt Lake and having access to a lot of more of those opportunities and then being part of the Hinckley Institute kind of just enhanced that passion that passion .

Speaker 1 11:57

So , yeah , yeah , I love what you said , because I think it's always funny to me that we don't talk about religion or politics the two things that that really can run so many things , but that you learned critical thinking and also to have an opinion and be able to state it right in a way that is not offensive , in just a conversational way , like that is such a skill that your parents gave you that I think many parents kind of tend to shy away from .

Speaker 3 12:20

And I especially think as a woman and as a young woman . You know , it's kind of unique to find a young girl who I mean I think all young girls have those opinions , but maybe they're afraid to share them or have been conditioned to not to be a nice girl and not talk about those things .

Speaker 3 12:34

But I think I'm really grateful that that wasn't emphasized in my home and I really felt comfortable sharing my opinions and and being in groups of diverse people , being in groups with boys and saying this is what I believe and being comfortable having those facilitated discussions with them and not worrying about coming off too headstrong .

Speaker 1 12:53

Yeah , that you can be nice and hold your own and have an opinion . That's really important . Okay so , Morgan , you touched on this transition of Utah Women Run with Real Women Run . Can you kind of work through that with us , share a little bit about where they've come from and where they're going to go in the next three to five years ? Yeah , so .

Speaker 2 13:14

Real Women Run and in part I'm grateful we changed it to Utah Women Run because it's so much easier to say .

Speaker 2 13:20

But Real Women Run was founded about 12 , 13 years ago really , by a group of elected and former elected women who were looking around and saying what's happening . Why are we not seeing other states around us Nevada , colorado we're seeing the number of women being elected climb , climb , climb , and Utah we're either plateauing or we're even dipping in some of these roles . And so they formed this board and it really is a working board that puts on trainings and the focus really was getting women into elected office and with we were housed within the YWCA for many years and , with just some changes and the pandemic and their focus needing to be other places , realized we needed a new home and the Hinckley Institute is what made the most sense and we rebranded as Utah Women Run . Thankfully , because it's one more syllable but 10 times

Political Empowerment and Partnership in Action

Speaker 2 14:18

easier to say . I don't know why the double R , it just gets us and we've expanded our focus to still have trainings , trying to give women those skills Because , as I know you've talked about on your podcast many times , women feel like they have to be overprepared , have more knowledge , all of these things to take that leap .

Speaker 2 14:39

So to try to provide those . But we've also focused more also on advocacy how we just had a day on the Hill talking about how do you go up , how do you advocate for policy , how do you talk to your elected officials . Also on mentorship and just that broader idea of political engagement .

Speaker 1 15:00

Yes , thank you , and I feel like that's where we have kind of partnered and overlapped and have some initiatives together . I want to touch on those in just a minute , but first of all I want to celebrate your day on the Hill . I love that Just getting people up there and saying this is your house , this is your house , you pay for it . Like you can be here , will you both share a little bit from that day , maybe a high , low or something about it , because it just happened right , one of the .

Speaker 2 15:27

It was last week , on the interim day on October 16th . I should be more specific . I know not everybody listens to podcasts right when we record them , and we had never done this . This was our first one . We were hoping Allie and I were talking that morning . We were hoping for 25 people to register . We had almost 70 people register .

Speaker 1 15:45

It was incredible .

Speaker 2 15:46

We had two former legislators who are now docents give short tours and then we went over into one of the committee rooms for lunch and we heard from several legislators and a lobbyist really talking about what is the process , how do you successfully engage , what are some of the strategies ? And it just was so positive , just a happy thing .

Speaker 3 16:14

Yeah , I would say , with most Utah Women Run events , it's just so inspiring to be in the room and I also think it's a really unique opportunity to do a day on the Hill because , like you said , lots of people have either never been to the Capitol or they've been when they were like a kid . Going on an elementary school tour and going as an adult is a completely different thing and you realize , oh , I can like come and be in meetings and I can watch and I can participate in this process . That is so , so integral to my , my community , you know , and I think I bring a unique perspective in that sense not being a political science person , not having that background , because there are a lot the women there that had never been to the capital before . Like I've been to the capital but like I don't have the connections , maybe that some other people have , and I can totally see how people would be intimidated by this process .

Speaker 3 16:58

That seems so like political by nature obviously is knowing people and knowing how to do certain things , and I think it's important to kind of be that middle ground of connecting people who feel like they completely can't approach the situation to like having access to something so important and so that was really cool . It was really fun to be with everyone . It was really fun to be I was in the tour group that had becky edwards in it and she kind of walked in a little bit . Everyone's like celebrity , you know , and it's kind of fun to just be with people and to walk around and learn things . And learn things from women is women , supporting women obviously is so powerful and and so I thought it was really really fun and to hear the different speakers give very practical advice about the reality of running for office and the reality of having the job and how maybe campaigning is different from the actual work , and it's very insightful .

Speaker 1 17:48

I love that . What you said about real is . It's one thing to be inspiring , which is definitely needed , but then there's also a component of like how do I actually do these things Right ? And I think it's one thing to know that this is a house that you can go into and participate in and then , once you get inside , know where to go and what to do Absolutely . Because , that can also be a barrier , quite truthfully , to many people .

Speaker 2 18:11

So well , and with that balancing of the inspiration and the real . We have had this in mind with our trainings as far back as I can remember being on the board .

Speaker 1 18:22

Our biggest .

Speaker 2 18:23

Our biggest training of the year is our annual training , which is typically in January or March , depending on the year and the election cycle , and we would always have two tracks . And one was you're here , you're just dipping your toe , you need some positivity , you want to be inspired . We're going to give you some general advice and make you know you can do this . And then the other one was we're in the weeds . These are the absolute tools you have to know . Here are the skills and the specifics of how you run , how you engage , how you advocate . I think that's so important and I loved that Day on the Hill had a mix of both .

Speaker 3 19:07

Yeah , absolutely .

Speaker 1 19:08

Well , hopefully you'll do it again , because I heard many positive things .

Speaker 2 19:11

Yeah , I think it's definitely going to be an annual thing for us . Good yeah .

Speaker 1 19:13

Good , I'm so glad about that . I'm a lover of interim . I don't know why , I'm not a big policy nerd or anything like that , but I just love the fact that you can sit there and if I didn't find something interesting , I could leave and go to a different committee or and there was always something I was like wait , what ? Why are you discussing this ? I don't , I don't agree with that , or I really agree with that . Thank you so much for discussing this . So , anyway , thank you for that . So let's talk a little bit about our partnership . We've done a couple things together . Let's start with the mentorship program that we just launched this year . Allie , do you want to tell us about that ?

Speaker 3 19:51

So we did our mentorship program , like you said , for the first time this year .

Speaker 3 19:54

It was a six-month program that ran from April to September I believe , and we kind of designed a program .

Speaker 3 20:02

I think , that really married our two organizations quite well , you know , offering a lot of the political development series specialties as well as the Utah Wind Run training specialties , and I think the purpose of it was that we would be able to give women the one-on-one attention that they need sometimes .

Speaker 3 20:17

You know , it was offered there to give them the resources that you need and it was offered so that we could cater directly to their needs , as opposed to , like when you come to a training , there's something for everyone , for sure , but there are going to be points throughout the day where you go . This doesn't feel applicable to me or this , but this was able to give mentors the guide , to kind of follow this path if they weren't sure what to talk about or their mentee wasn't sure what to talk about , but it also allowed them the opportunity to say if the mentee was like very certain about the things they wanted to learn about . They had the opportunity to do that , which I think was really great and it was really awesome to see and hear those experiences and hear how people guided their mentor or their mentee , depending on their needs .

Speaker 1 21:01

Yeah . So the Women's Leadership Institute often goes into companies and helps with mentoring programs , right , employee resource groups , those kinds of things . But it was actually kind of a surprise that we haven't been doing that formally for politics , because of course women leave actually kind of a surprise that we haven't been doing that formally for politics , because of course women leave our programs after a day program with you or our six months and are like now what or what , if I actually need to know how to run for my city council level or whatever that might be . So I love that we um started forming this and in the beginning , right with any program , it was like how do we do this ? What does it look like ? How many people ? But I think I'm really proud of how that turned out . Morgan , do you want to share your perspective ?

Speaker 2 21:44

Yeah , really I love that we have built this pathway , that working together , trying to talk about how do we complement the work of Utah Women Run and Women's Leadership Institute , that if women come to a Utah Women Run training and we were seeing women come to training after training , after training how do we give them more ? So if they've come to a training and are ready for a next step , let's encourage them to do the political development series with WLI . Give them this more drawn out over time . I think the content complements each other so much and then a lot of ways overlaps . The political development series , I think , gives you more time to synthesize , think through , strategize what your next steps are and then , OK , what's your next step , Because you're still always going to have questions . Your next step is that mentorship ?

Speaker 2 22:32

And I think , if you talk to a lot of people when they think about their mentors , it's always something that happens organically I shouldn't say always . It's typically something that happens organically . It's someone you meet , it's someone in your office , it's a relationship you build . But if you don't have that , it's so difficult to establish a mentorship relationship . So that's something that we wanted to provide and , thanks to the incredible women who have run for office , who are already in advocacy , who stepped up and said I'm happy to be a mentor , we had an incredible bench of mentors and a group of nearly 30 women who had done these trainings and were ready for that next step .

Speaker 1 23:16

Yes , I was . I was inspired by that . Women run for office and are so busy , but who were willing to take that one on one time to say , absolutely , I want to help . And one of the things that I think was interesting is the networks , because really that's also what you need when you're running for office the networks that opened up from the mentor to the mentee . Or you know , one of the mentors took her mentee and shadowed a day in her life and what this looks like . And I think that is so valuable , because learning it and doing it are two different things .

Speaker 2 23:51

And we had . There were two things that really struck me . One was the very , very busy women . As you said , we have women who have stepped down from our board , who have or who've said I can't do that right now , I'm too busy , but when we said the word , having our breakfast and talking about what worked , what they still wanted , what they still needed was to see the networking and the relationship building that was happening with the mentees , which we really want to when we're we were talking about next year realizing all right , let's build in some more pathways for the mentees to connect , because mentors are incredible .

Speaker 2 24:38

I think what we discounted was mentees are all in that same boat , they're all starting out together and that emotional tie of what they're feeling was so profound and it was just cool to see them get excited to meet each other and learn from each other Absolutely .

Speaker 1 24:54

So if people want to sign up for that , I think that you are enrolling right now , for if they want to do the mentorship and April is when it'll kick off again , okay , Very good , you can find that link on our website if you want to , and what is your ?

Speaker 3 25:08

website . It's utahwomanrunorg .

Speaker 2 25:11

Yes , I know it's always like wait , I don't remember , I don't know . I just edited and build all the Web pages . I don't know .

Speaker 1 25:20

And then the other big event that we have is the urgency of women's leadership , particularly in southern Utah , where we have seen women run . And we saw some things that might need to help support the women and while it's political focused , it's also very much on leadership . Right , it's in the fall in Southern Utah and we talk very much about whether you want to lead in your home or your community or professionally . It's building those leadership skills . Morgan , do you want to say anything about that event ?

Speaker 2 25:52

Yeah , I actually have learned so much from that event and I think some of the lessons actually spilled over into how Utah Women Run strategically thought about our future , because I think Real Women Run's focus so much was just run , run , run for office . That is how you make a difference , and it was our first Southern Utah events where the women were pushing back on that and saying I don't want to run , but I think I'm having an impact in other ways .

Speaker 2 26:20

Yes , and that is valid too , and that is so absolutely valid , and it made us retool what we do in Southern Utah . And now we have this partnership in this beautiful event that sells out every year and people are thrilled to be there . Event that sells out every year and people are thrilled to be there , and it really does represent the broad scope of women's leadership , not just in Southern Utah but in our country , in society . It touches on so many beautiful things and so I'm always inspired by the event . That event , and I'm so grateful for it , that it opened our eyes to what are other ways that we can be helping women lead .

Speaker 1 26:58

Yes , and that there's sometimes some women turn around from a one day training or a PDS and are like I'm absolutely ready to run and they're ready to go . We found that many women might take a little bit longer path and need that mentoring , need that developing their leadership skills . This year we're going to talk here in 2024 . Specific , we're going to talk about the Dignity Index , right and back to your conversation of how to have your opinion , how to do it with dignity and respect right and how to listen to other people .

Speaker 1 27:30

One of the very first years that we did it . A couple , well , a couple of years ago , when we started getting involved , we , even though female presidents right , mindy Benson , stacey McKiff , getting them all in a room one of the comments that I heard because I love to listen to the chatter in the back was someone said I had no idea there were this many female leaders in Southern Utah , and so just the awareness part is huge when you're working to build that . If you can see it , you can be it , and I've loved watching that grow and I love that it sells out . Yeah , yeah , it's very cool

Recognizing Women's Leadership and Legacy

Speaker 1 28:05

.

Speaker 2 28:05

Well , and I'm so happy you're using the Dignity Index and Tammy Pfeiffer , who I know , who's speaking , who's been such a leader on that the Dignity Index . The University of Utah was so and the Hinckley Institute were so thrilled to be part of that really the start of that and it was student interns and fellows that were helping look at political speech and identify what was contemptuous , what was dignified , and who were still part of trying to spread that word . And Tammy Pfeiffer is also one of those people . That was so , so , so busy . But the second we asked her to be a mentor . She said and it was really late in the game . She said , yeah , I've got an event . Can my mentee ?

Speaker 1 28:44

come tomorrow . Yes , I love that .

Speaker 2 28:46

So just leading out and talking about you know we're so . There's so many people so frustrated with the polarization , with very undignified speech , that we have happening in the just I was about to say in the lead up to the election , but it's just sort of in general now All the time with the Dignity Index and how we can be leaders and hopefully bringing back a little more civility and policy and practicalism to politics and the way we talk .

Speaker 1 29:25

Yeah , well , the interesting thing , as we were talking about it , is everyone has a different tolerance for what conflict is for what contention is ?

Speaker 1 29:35

Some people it's , if I bring up an opinion at all , then I'm being contentious . So we love the idea of giving them an actual framework to go from . You know , those actual practical tools of like , ok , you want to try this , how do you actually do it ? Kind of like your day on the hill , right , all these things that combine both the inspiration and the practicality . Yeah , I think that's important . Yeah , okay , I want to pivot and talk about so .

Speaker 1 30:06

A couple of weeks ago , at the beginning of October , we had our annual Elevate Her luncheon and we have the A Scott Anderson Ally Award , based off Scott Anderson , who was who , with Pat Jones , founded the Women's Leadership Institute for men , who've been so gracious and supportive and also women in these companies and moving our work forward . And I know that you also have an award . You've started the Martha Hughes Cannon Award . So I want to start . I don't know if everyone knows about Martha Hughes Cannon Award , so I want to start . I don't know if everyone knows about Martha Hughes Cannon , so I just want to read a little bit here for those who don't know and shout out to Better Days because that's , you know , they did a great work gathering her information .

Speaker 1 30:47

So Martha Maddie Hughes Cannon , 1857 to 1932 , blazed trails for women as a skilled physician , an ardent suffragist , progressive public health reformer and , most notably , the first female state senator in Utah . Maddie called the wider sphere for a woman , explaining you , give me a woman who thinks about something besides cook stoves and wash tubs and baby flannels , and I'll show you , nine times out of ten , a successful mother . She struck a difficult balance between the demands of motherhood of her three children and her passion for public service . She also said let us not waste our talents in the cauldron of modern nothingness , but strive to become women of intellect and endeavor to do some little good while we live in this protected gleam called life .

Speaker 2 31:36

And that modern nothingness she said that 130 years ago .

Speaker 3 31:42

Every time I see that quote , I just cannot believe how personal it still is .

Speaker 1 31:48

And when she talked about , give me a woman who thinks about besides cook stove , like our conversation back to like your mom and your mom , yeah , very cool .

Speaker 2 31:56

So do you want to tell us about the award , why you chose to name it Martha Hughes Cannon , some of the recipients Well , the reason we chose to name it the Martha Hughes Cannon is because , A she's incredible and B she is the first state senator who is a woman , who was elected , not just in Utah but in the entire country . Utah was the first on that , One of many firsts . Utah , we were also the first place where a woman voted yes .

Speaker 1 32:20

So we were young , right ? Yes ?

Speaker 2 32:23

Valentine's Day . So we wanted to honor that beautiful tradition while also honoring some of the incredible women that are doing the work right now . And we'd always had what we'd called a fall celebration in November and we just sort of thought , how do we , how do we make this , how do we up the ante , how do we make this more of a celebration ? And this seemed to marry those two things really nicely .

Speaker 1 32:49

Good , okay , and how long has it been going ? This is our second year . Second year , okay , and who was the award ?

Speaker 3 32:55

winner . Last year we had five different award winners , so we have categories for contributions to the Democratic Party , the Republican Party , local government policy and then a lifelong achievement award .

Speaker 2 33:09

Okay , perfect , and last year the Lifetime Achievement Award sort of took us by surprise . We'd only planned to focus on those original four . Republican , democrat , city local government , and then advocacy . And as we were going through everything , we just realized how do we not give the Lifetime Achievement to Becky Edwards ? So , just because of the amazingness of Becky , we created the category for her .

Speaker 1 33:33

There you go , becky . Shout out yeah , amazingness of Becky . We created the category for her . There you go , becky .

Speaker 2 33:36

Shout out . So Senator Luz Escamilla was the honoree of the Democratic Party . Allison Bell , who'd been the chief of staff to Mike Lee for many years , was the Republican winner . South Jordan Mayor Don Ramsey was the winner for local government , and then Nubia Pena , who's the director of Utah Division of Multicultural or who has worked in the governor's office under the Cox administration and who is just a brilliant , amazing leader , won that outstanding work in policy and advocacy .

Speaker 1 34:10

Very cool Becky get her award , which was awesome , and I was taking pictures of that . But then I turned my focus and I saw her husband and just the support and he was recording it all and and um , someone leaned over to me and said that's the shot . Yes , because it's about you and knowing what you want and doing it , but also surrounding yourself with people who are so supportive . So I really enjoyed the event last year and appreciate those awards .

Speaker 3 34:39

Yeah , Last year I kind of thought that was the end of my Utah Wind Run days .

Speaker 3 34:44

You know it was like six weeks before the semester ended and we didn't really know where we were going from there and the whole night I was just a blubbering baby mess because I was like there are so many inspiring people in this room . I remember at one point someone on the board was going up to give an award . She handed me her phone . She's like , can you take my picture ? And she like turns to me and I'm like crying and she's like , oh , and I was like sorry , I don't get to do this all the time .

Speaker 3 35:06

So it was very inspiring and the night was so great . But , specifically talking about Becky Edwards and her family situation , I was so just brought to so much emotion because not only was her husband there to support her , but her mom was there , her sisters were there , her daughters were there , her granddaughters were there and it is such a family effort for them which is so lovely and just showcases the best of humanity , I think .

Speaker 3 35:28

And it makes me think about my own family , the women in my family . You know , I recently had a conversation with my dad where we were talking about louisa may alcott and how , um , we went toward her house a couple years ago just him and I was kind of strange , but , um , it was a really awesome experience for us because we went into this schoolhouse that was built on their property and their dad built it so that there was a place to educate the women , because he was a man who only had daughters at a time where only men were afforded the right to go to school . And my dad talks about that experience with such reverence , almost and talking about . You know , there are times in our lives where we realize the injustice and and we realize things that need to change . And that was one of those . And I look at the Edwards family and how they have used policy and education and all these different things to really empower the women in their family .

Speaker 3 36:19

And I was watching . At one point Becky took I mean , she was getting all her flowers that night for sure , but she took a moment away to take her granddaughter to the bathroom and I just heard little granddaughter was just like running over to the bathroom and she was like trying to keep up with her and I , that was such a simple but very precious moment to me . To be like this woman who is so , has so many achievements and is capable of so much and has done so much for our community , takes this time away to you know , be with her family , be with her daughters , be with her granddaughters , and it was just awe inspiring , thank you for sharing that .

Speaker 1 36:52

It calls to mind , as you're talking , something that has been surprising in the work that we do in the business community and that is generational impact , and what a surprise additive that has been like . We even added that into our mission statement because fathers looking at their own daughters beginning to say , oh , I don't want that for my daughter , how do we change that in the company ? And this generational impact of Becky Edwards and looking at their own daughters beginning to say , oh , I don't want that for my daughter , how do we change that in the company ? And this generational impact of Becky Edwards . And sometimes , after people do PDS and then they start running for office , they'll send us pictures of them with their daughters , them with their families , the little red wagons right , the strollers , and I just find that so inspirational that it's not just them running for office because we have an agenda and we want them to change things .

Speaker 2 37:38

But it really is a generational impact and how beautiful that is walking into the room and I saw Mayor Ramsey sitting down and a woman who was not at our Martha Hughes Cannon Awards walked up to Mayor Ramsey and congratulated her on receiving the Martha Hughes Cannon Award . And there were like three other people who were like , oh , I saw that and they were talking about it and I just got to observe this incredible woman being honored , also referencing Martha Hughes Cannon , keeping that name , that should just be a household name for all Utahns and realizing , oh , this is a beautiful impact and we're going to continue this forever .

Speaker 1 38:29

That's one of the reasons this whole podcast was started is to capture the stories of success and also to elevate women's voices Right To recognize the work that they are doing , because so many times those allies are behind the scenes doing things , so I love that they're like hey , Don , you got an award .

Speaker 2 38:48

Congratulations and if people want to attend this year's Martha Hughes Cannon Awards , it's on November 19th and you can register at UtahWomenRunorg .

Speaker 1 38:55

We'll put that in the show notes . Okay , so , ladies , as we close up , I want to ask you this question and then if there's anything else you want to discuss before we close . So we've talked about the Martha Hughes Cannon Awards and a little bit about her being the first female state senator in the nation , and we've got Sarah , who was the first person to vote . We started out really powerful with women . Why has it changed ? Like , where was there a misstep and how do we regain those efforts ? This is such a humongous question .

Speaker 1 39:32

This is such a humongous question .

Speaker 2 39:35

Humongous . Well , I've really tried to understand why Utah doesn't have more women in these leadership positions In the early 90s that's when we had the original year of the woman .

Speaker 1 39:47

I know modern

Utah Women in Politics Rise

Speaker 1 39:48

day .

Speaker 2 39:48

We talk about 2018 , when the number of women in elected office just went so far up , but we also had that in oh I'm blanking if it was 92 or 94 . But that Utah was part of that . We saw an increase and it was totally steadily climbing . We were almost getting to the national average and then we plateaued and we even dipped a little bit , and I don't totally understand it . I think it's so complicated , if you're . I mean , one of the things is that the states that have more parity with women in office are typically Democratic states .

Speaker 2 40:26

And I think that's something the Republican Party has realized . The reason that they did so well in 2022 was they were running more veterans and people of color and women . That they did so well in 2022 was they were running more veterans and people of color and women and those people are winning . They were good candidates who were winning elections , and I often say Utah won't have more women in elected office until we have more Republican women and we have more Republican men supporting them .

Speaker 2 40:48

And I think Celeste Malloy is an example of that with Chris Stewart when he stepped down how he endorsed her . So I think that is the part of the story and that is something that we are really aware of at Utah Women Run . We are a nonpartisan organization but I think , just because of our agenda , sometimes people assign a party to us and we work really hard to say we're here for Republican women , for Democratic women , for women who are running for nonpartisan office and everything in between , absolutely , and trying to find those allies and support across the political spectrum .

Speaker 1 41:22

Oh , I love that you brought that up about the nonpartisan , because same right . Sometimes people try and assign a party to the Women's Leadership Institute , but really we just want to give opportunity to all women who want to do that . And the thing I love about Celeste Malloy is Chris Stewart endorsed her and it wasn't just like I'm endorsing a woman for a woman's sake . She's very competent in what she does as well , so I love that you brought those things up .

Speaker 3 41:48

Allie . I think , looking at Utah from a historic perspective , utah is built on strong women . You know , I think about the pioneer heritage here . You know , it takes a strong woman to get her kids across the plains , you know , and back in the early days we were a lot more dependent on women , and we still are incredibly dependent on women , obviously . But I think the focus has shifted with time away from seeing the efforts that women make .

Speaker 3 42:17

I think one thing that is so incredible about women is how close they are to their community .

Speaker 3 42:21

You know a lot , not that men aren't close to their community , obviously , but a lot of times women are the primary caregivers to their children or primary caregivers in the homes .

Speaker 3 42:30

They're closer to the education system , they're closer to administration . They're closer to people in the community . You know they're . They maybe are more social or have different things , and so that is part of why women have such this capability to relate to their community and understand the issues of their communities , and so I think with time we'll see that that is really a superpower that women have , and so that's why it's important to support women running for office , and I'm not quite exactly sure why we tend to dip , or yeah , but I do believe that it is through male allyship , such as Celeste Malloy , you know , supporting good candidates regardless of their gender , but especially good female

Supporting Women in Politics and Leadership

Speaker 3 43:09

candidates . They , they're out there , they exist , and women get stuff done . You know , like at the end of the day , that's something we talk about a lot is that women can get some stuff done , and so I think , with time , with support from both parties and from both sides of the aisle , that we'll be able to hopefully match the national average .

Speaker 1 43:27

Yeah , I love that . I think you're absolutely right . It takes both the opportunity and the helping women understand that it's a path for them , that they can do it , and creating that internal confidence . Confidence comes up a lot in the women that we mentor to say I'm going to go for it , you know , I think that's important . All right , any last things that you want to share about Utah Women Run , about politics , about our partnership , anything that you want to share before we close out ?

Speaker 2 43:56

If people are interested in learning more about advocacy or running for office any of our events , it's utahwomenrunorg . And just a shout out to Women's Leadership Institute . We have just loved partnering and strengthening our relationship with you and I think it only makes both of our organizations stronger and provides more resources for the women of our state .

Speaker 1 44:15

Absolutely . Thank you . We feel the same way .

Speaker 3 44:17

Support the women in your lives . You know it can be as simple as a you can do this . A lot of time women need someone to come to them and say you can do this in order to get there . Support them either that way . Tell them the resources that they have , like Utah One Run , like WLI , or donate to their campaigns . You know that's really important .

Speaker 1 44:36

I think that's a perfect place to end . Thank you so much , ladies . I've appreciated our conversation . Thank you .