Former Utah first lady Norma Matheson and Rep. Afton Brad-shaw, R-Salt Lake, may be among the elite in Utah politics. They are recognized by their first names.

This is how Elouise Bell introduced them - as Norma and Af-ton - Thursday at the University Park Hotel where Matheson and Bradshaw were honored with the 25th annual Susa Young Gates Awards by the Utah Women's Political Caucus.In their acceptance speeches, both women said they'd been asked to encourage more women to run for office, which they did.

Bradshaw said women in elected office are still treated differently than men at times. "I look forward to a society that recognizes women can be many things . . . deep thinking as well as deep feeling," she said.

When she was young, Bradshaw never dreamed of being a legislator. She said girls had basically only two career role models: teachers and nurses.

Bradshaw dedicated her award, however, to a woman who also held a nontraditional job. Her mother went to work on a wartime assembly line after Bradshaw's father died and there were seven children still at home.

Her mother made bullets, Bradshaw said. And the men who stood next to her mother on the assembly line were paid more than she. "That was my introduction to pay equity," she said.

Matheson talked about the rewards of public service. She quoted her husband, the late Scott Matheson, a Democrat, in a speech he gave when he announced he would not seek a third term as Utah's governor: "I never had political ambitions, but like most of us, I had political convictions."

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To encourage women who might think politics are hard on a family, Matheson read a column by Ellen Goodman, who said that when her father ran for office, she got to know him in 100 ways. "We were a political family, yes, but put the emphasis on family," Goodman wrote.

In keeping with the theme of encouraging more women to run for political office, local college students, young women studying political science, were guests of members of the Utah Women's Political Caucus at the luncheon.

Asked about abortion after the luncheon, Bradshaw said she doesn't even like to have the issue brought up because it is divisive. And no, accepting an award from the Utah Women's Political Caucus doesn't mean Bradshaw's pro-choice.

Bradshaw said she was glad to see both a Democrat and a Republican honored this year.

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