Today is Women’s Equality Day. It’s a little-known federal holiday commemorating the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave white women the vote in 1920. Long before that, in 1870, the first woman to vote in any American election was a Utahn: Seraph Young, grandniece of Mormon prophet Brigham Young.
Utah also had the first female senator (Martha Huges Cannon) and the first all-female city council (Kanab). After so many firsts, it’s tragic that in many concrete, measurable ways Utah now comes in last in the nation for women. Just last week, Utah was again ranked worst for women’s equality.