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Partisan polarization means Americans and the nation are not living up to their potential, former U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe told hundreds gathered for the YWCA's Leader Luncheon on Friday.

Snowe, who said she dropped out of the 2012 race for a fourth term because of that polarization, urged women to not only vote, but also to run for office.

"Elect more women. They are more collaborative," said the former moderate Republican senator and representative from Maine.

Six Utah women from various fields also were honored during the luncheon, the 26th for the YWCA.

For years, Snowe said, there were so few women in Congress that they met monthly and worked together on all kinds of bipartisan legislation, such as the Violence Against Women Act that passed in 1994.

"You have to work with those with whom you disagree," said Snowe — something that's "as rare as a solar eclipse, if not Halley's comet."

Snowe laid Congress' record-low approval ratings and its inability to get anything done on "pervasive partisanship." She pointed to a National Journal study indicating there are now no senators and only four representatives who can be considered moderate.

"The ideological sorting by party is almost complete," she said.

"I didn't depart because I didn't love or believe in it [the Senate] but because I do," said Snowe, who added she figured she'd have more success working outside the institution.

Snowe is now a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, as is former Utah Sen. Bob Bennett, a Republican defeated by Sen. Mike Lee at the 2010 Utah Republican convention.

Snowe also is on the center's board.

Six women were honored during the luncheon, and each briefly spoke.

The honorees were:

Martha Bradley-Evans, a professor in the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Utah, for education.

Christina Gallop, medical director at the Fourth Street Clinic, for medicine and health.

Jacqueline Gomez-Arias, founder of Latino Behavioral Health Services, for human services.

Betty Sawyer, director of the state GEAR UP Program at Weber State University, for racial justice.

Yda Smith, founding member of the Division of Occupational Therapy at the University of Utah, for community service.

Peggy Fletcher Stack, religion reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune, for arts and communication.

kmoulton@sltrib.com

Twitter: @KristenMoulton