Gina H. Worthen (left) and Barbara Y. Tidwell (right) will assume leadership responsibilities for the Cache County Council in their new roles as chair and vice-chair respectively.
LOGAN – As if to refute a recent study highlighting the under-representation of women in local government, the Cache County Council has now voted itself a full slate of females in its leadership positions.
Without dissent Tuesday, Gina H. Worthen and Barbara Y. Tidwell were voted the council’s new chair and vice chair, respectively.
Worthen, who had been the vice chair during 2020, now succeeds Karl B. Ward in the council’s central post, while Tidwell replaces Worthen.
Worthen was selected by a GOP special election in February 2017 to serve out the unexpired term of former county council member Val Potter. She was re-elected to the Northeast District seat on the council in 2018.
Worthen has previously served as secretary and vice-chair of the Cache County GOP and as a representative to the Central Committee of the Utah Republican Party.
Tidwell is a retired banker and former president of the Cache County Republican Women. She joined the County Council in 2016 after running unopposed to fill the seat representing Logan formerly held by Kathy Robison.
Tidwell previously functioned as treasurer of the Cache Water District in addition to serving on seven local boards and committees in her capacity as a member of the county council.
Worthen and Tidwell were jointly involved in organizing the local “Celebration of a Century: 1920 to 2020,” a year-long event honoring Utah women who were pioneers in the suffrage movement that ultimately resulted in the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution a century ago.
The new status of Worthen and Tidwell would seem to be an interesting footnote to a recent study by Utah State University’s Utah Women & Leadership Project (UWLP), in conjunction with USU Extension and Utah Valley University.
That research effort concluded that lower than nationwide percentages of Utah women serving in elected positions, including at county and municipal levels, indicated that the state needed to improve its gender equality in the political arena.