SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL
HELPS ACHIEVE PASSAGE
OF UTAH LAW ON PAY EQUITY

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah —With a goal of involving young women like herself in politics, 17-year-old Susan Sparrow of Salt Lake City and her group of 20 peers are gratified that the results of their three-month lobbying effort will result in a new state law in Utah. On Thursday, April 3 at 4:30 PM, the Governor of Utah will sign the Compensation Study Act, capping Ms. Sparrow’s efforts, which started last October some 2,000 miles away when she attended a teen leadership program at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.

The bill, H.B. 81, mandates a study regarding pay among Utah state employees. Because of the new law pushed through by the teens, for the first time the state’s Department of Workforce Services will collect payment data by gender. Sparrow sees the study, which will be conducted on a select group of state employees, as an important first step in closing the gender pay gap in Utah.

Sparrow, an energetic junior at Rowland Hall, a private school in Salt Lake City, traces her desire to involve girls in politics back to Utah’s uneven distribution of men and women in politics. She took this issue to Mount Holyoke College’s Take the Lead program last October. Sparrow was one of 40 teens from around the country selected to participate in the intensive leadership program, which helps young women bring about positive change. While on campus, she formulated a plan to involve young girls in Utah politics.

“I’ve always had a passion for politics and I’ve always wanted to share it with others, but I never knew how until coming to Take the Lead,” says Sparrow about her experience at the Mount Holyoke College teen leadership program.

Upon returning home to Salt Lake City, Sparrow found that her initial idea’s feasibility hit a roadblock. In November, while discussing her quandary with her school’s community service director, Liz Paige, she learned about citizen interest group Utah Progressive Network and its role in working for pay equity in the state. Paige helped to set up a meeting between the group and Sparrow. From this meeting, the steps were set in motion for involving young women in Utah’s state politics.

At the initial meeting, Sparrow learned that Utah Progressive Network had proposed a pay equity bill during the past few years but that it had failed to make it out of committee. The network’s lobbyist, Lorna Vogt, warned the teen that future progress on the bill looked bleak. With a copy of the proposed bill in hand, Sparrow went home to review it. She also headed to the library to look into the general issue. It was then that she was galvanized by her findings: Utah is the second worst state for pay equity, with women earning only 66 cents for every dollar a man earns.

To involve peers in the cause, Sparrow held a pizza party with a movie about women’s rights on December 12. To her great delight, 39 students turned out. The group then met throughout the months, learning how to lobby from Vogt and gaining notoriety through the press. Rep. Ty McCartney, D-Salt Lake, a working police officer in Utah’s citizen legislature, sponsored the bill. The group’s 20 core members were drawn from her school. A few boys joined the effort, as did two students from other schools.

On February 14, the group brought Valentine’s Day cookies to the state capitol to dramatize their issue. Twenty high school students came out for the event, wearing festive red sashes for the holiday and handing out large cookies and 34 percent smaller ones (symbols of the 66 cents women earn for every dollar men earn). Decorated cookies in the shape of hearts displayed messages, including, “Aren’t we worth it?” “Yes on H.B. 81,” “.66 or $1.00-which do you prefer?” “We are worth it,” and “Pay Equity,” and a string of cookies spelled out “Women make 66 cents to every man’s dollar in Utah.” Other, less politically active cookies sported just pink frosting. Local radio and daily newspapers covered the event.

Through persistence, the bill passed the House and then the Senate, with the group of teens showing up frequently to pass notes to elected officials and speak with aides. As the session wound down, the girls faced several challenges as more controversial bills continued to prevent theirs from gaining a final vote. Stuck in the Senate’s Rule Committee, the bill almost died with just days left in the legislative session. Intensive lobbying pushed the bill through for its vote on March 3; it passed 25-0.

“As we listened to the votes being tallied, five months of hard work and devotion seemed to all come together for us. We were thrilled to see the results of our efforts,” notes Sparrow.

A member of the basketball team and the editor of her school’s paper, Sparrow has four interests: engineering, marine biology, psychology and politics. At seventeen, she already seems seasoned in politics and able to set and reach her goals.

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About Take the Lead at Mount Holyoke College:
Take the Lead is Mount Holyoke College’s leadership program for idealistic, action-oriented young women who want to make a positive difference in the world. Last year the program attracted more than 600 applicants from around the country. Selected by a Mount Holyoke review committee, 40 young women attended the program in October. The teens were chosen based on their potential for leadership and making a difference, as demonstrated by their academic, extracurricular, and community involvement as well as their insight and motivation. Widely recognized for educating generations of women leaders, Mount Holyoke College is the nation’s oldest continuing institution of higher education for women. Learn more about the program at www.mtholyoke.edu/go/takethelead.