Date of Award

1973

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (BS)

Department

Political Science

Abstract

This paper is a product of the desire to take advantage of the enormous amount of valuable data available in the files of the Bureau of Government and Opinion Research at Utah State University. The manpower and financial demands of doing the actual polling and getting the totals quickly to the public or private client make a detailed analysis of the conglomerate of studies a near impossibility.

It was my purpose to undertake a segment of just this type of research and integration of data. The increasing frequency with which women as a minority and voting group have been referred stimulated many questions in my mind. Because of data and time considerations, I have limited my inquiry to a relatively narrow time span, that of the years 1970-1973. These same considerations dictated that I confine the scope of the project to women in Utah, their political power, voting patterns, and their placement on the political spectrum.

Three basic questions must be confronted in an analysis of this intent. First, what, if any, political power or influence in office do Utah women exert? Second, where do they stand on social and political issues? Third, how do they express their political leanings in the voting booth?

Only when Utah women have been ascribed a political characterization, founded in data of voting patterns and responses to public opinion questionnaires; can one begin the political speculation which is the eternal temptation facing a political analyst. (Indeed, it is a temptation to anyone who gets bitten by the political bug). That temptation will not be denied in this paper, but it will be - hopefully - deferred until the concluding section.

It is my hope that this work will not of necessity be judged merely the completion of a degree in the Honors program at Utah State University, but will in fact throw new, relevant light on a matter of increasing political significance.

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Faculty Mentor

Dan E. Jones