Loss bodes ill for women in politics, Wilson says

Women still have a long way to go in Utah politics.

Just nine women serve as mayor of 174 municipalities statewide. And the possibility of a 10th female mayor ended abruptly Tuesday when Jenny Wilson was defeated in the primary mayoral election for Salt Lake City.

The loss — plus current Mayor Rocky Anderson's last minute op-ed Salt Lake Tribune piece on the ability to serve as mayor and a mother of small children — could spell trouble in recruiting more women to run for public office, Wilson said.

"Rocky's charges and all of the discussions out there, I think, if anything, are going to suppress women from having an interest in running for office," Wilson said. "Now I feel like there will be some sense of, 'Oh great, I've got kids. Look what happened to Jenny.' And that's too bad."

Both major political parties say they are constantly on the lookout for good women to run for public office.

The Salt Lake County Republican Party also relies on various women's groups to attract women to the political arena, party Chairman James Evans said.

"We always have a hard time recruiting just people to run for public office because it's a tremendous sacrifice," Evans said. Finding women is even tougher.

Look at the numbers. Female legislators are a rarity on Utah's Capitol Hill. Three serve in the 29-member Senate, while 15 of the 75 legislators in the House are female.

It's not a matter of skills, said former Salt Lake Mayor Deedee Corradini, the city's first female mayor. They just don't run.

"If women were to run in the same percentage as men, they would win in the same percentages," Corradini said. "Our problem is, we don't have enough women that run."

Wilson ran against eight men for a chance to serve as Salt Lake City's next mayor. Two men, Ralph Becker and Dave Buhler, survived the primary to run in the Nov. 6 general election.

The fact Wilson is a woman did not hurt her campaign, former GOP congresswoman Enid Greene said. And Anderson's last minute op-ed two days before the election regarding motherhood was "simply desperation on his part," Greene said of the Salt Lake City mayor, who publicly endorsed Keith Christensen, who also lost in the primary.

"I don't think a lot of people voted for or against Jenny Wilson thinking about her children as much as Rocky would have had them do otherwise," Greene said.

But Wilson said she was the subject of undue scrutiny purely because of her gender.