Republican women grow stronger

SALT LAKE CITY — The state GOP tapped former Congresswoman Enid Greene Mickelsen to deliver the keynote address when the Utah Republican Party hosted a first-of-its-kind Women's Leadership Summit on Sept. 24.

"Walking into the meeting and seeing hundreds of women at the State Capitol, standing-room only — everyone excited to be there, talking with each other, swapping stories, asking for advice — it had such a positive energy to it," Mickelsen remembers. "That was the most fun I've had in Utah politics in years."

The leadership summit attracted more than 200 women. Attendees learned about things like being a candidate, the role of consultants, fundraising, lobbying and grassroots activism.

As the summit's ripples continue reverberating through the Utah Republican Party, the Women's Leadership Initiative that spawned it attempts to shape the future of the Beehive State's political landscape by empowering a new class of politically minded women.

From 2002-03, Kitty Dunn served as president of the Utah Federation of Republican Women. During that time she began attempting to spark greater female involvement within the state Republican Party; consistent success initially eluded Dunn, but she persisted.

"I tried to instigate several programs to educate women," Dunn said. "We were somewhat successful — but sporadically so — because I don't think the women in Utah were quite ready to jump all the way into the pool. They were a little too hesitant to be aggressive, and so we had some cultural hurdles to jump over."

Dunn's efforts finally turned the proverbial corner in 2010. Not only had she risen to wield great influence as the vice chairman of the Utah Republican Party, but the rapid ascendance of the tea party and its do-it-yourself ethos primed the Beehive State's lady Republicans with greater zeal for political involvement.

"Not just in Utah but nationwide, women really were becoming more involved (politically) due mostly to the tea-party movement," Dunn said. "I recognized that now's the time, and we have just moved forward with our plans ever since then."

After pouring the foundation for the women's initiative and coordinating logistics for the Sept. 24 summit, and right as her efforts started yielding substantive fruit, Dunn resigned her post with the Utah GOP to join Sen. Orrin Hatch's re-election campaign.